Maravi

Doctors’ frequent recourse to strike

Doctors’ frequent recourse to strike
By The Post
Thu 30 Sep. 2010, 00:00 CAT

One cannot claim to uphold the sanctity of life if there is no provision for the minimal healthcare for all. Life is sacred, a gift from God to be valued from the moment of conception until death. And there is no future development without healthy citizens.

Every person, whether rich or poor, has an equal right to receive healthcare. The crisis in Zambia’s healthcare delivery system is taking a heavy toll. The frequent strikes by doctors and other health workers hit the poorer segments of our society hardest.

In a country where over 70 per cent of the population lives below the poverty level, public hospitals are the only recourse for the majority. Only the better off, the most privileged politicians and their associates can afford the fees of private healthcare givers and to be sent to Morningside Clinic in Johannesburg and Apollo Hospital in India.

The frequent strikes by our doctors and other health workers are therefore worrisome and deserve urgent action by the authorities. And as we have stated before, these strikes, once more, demonstrate the insensitivity of those in charge of government.

It is amazing that they don’t view the near-collapse of public healthcare delivery across the width and breadth of our country as an emergency. The government should address strikes by doctors and other health workers with the seriousness they deserve.

The health of Zambians is too important to be treated with the shocking levity so far displayed by our government. Whenever there is a strike by doctors and other health workers, the response of our elected and appointed public officials has ranged from tepid to uncaring. We all know very well that as doctors dig in and government dither, hundreds of patients are likely to die and many others will suffer from lack of care.

By failing to act fast and decisively to remove the cause of dissent by doctors, the government is abdicating its sacred responsibility to protect the weak and the vulnerable in society. We therefore urge the government to act quickly and stop this strike by resident medical doctors before many lives are lost. There is no need for us to go back to last year’s situation.

The demands by doctors are legitimate and should be met by the government. Doctors have the right to receive just conditions of service. Remuneration for our doctors should guarantee them a dignified livelihood for themselves and their families.

The government should give our doctors an honest salary and then ask them for more substantial support. There is need for the government to ensure adequate funding to the health sector so that our doctors and other health workers can be remunerated in a manner that is just and fair.

But it seems our politicians only care about themselves, about the remuneration of the leadership. Politicians today are far better paid than professionals working for the government. The dignity of the work of our doctors and other health workers must be recognised with just remuneration and other conditions of service.

Our doctors have a strict duty to give our people efficient and conscientious service for which they have a right to a just salary. We are called to use our talents through our work in order to build up the good of our society.

It appears, however, that doctors and other health workers resort to the strike weapon very quickly. Unlike in the past when only severe adverse conditions provoked doctors especially to strike, it now takes only a little inconvenience for physicians to hang their stethoscopes.

The current dispute is mostly agitation over poor conditions of service, lack of proper equipment to use and the government’s insensitivity to the doctor’s demands.

Our doctors should rethink their strategy. We say this not because they don’t have a point. We are saying this because their tasks of saving lives and providing care are too important to be left to the whims of uncaring politicians.

Their tasks of saving lives and providing care are too important and this is enshrined in the oaths they take on their inauguration as doctors. The 2,500-year-old Hippocratic Oath recognises the sanctity of human life and imposes a duty on every physician to save lives even at personal risk or discomfort.

Doctors should not be made to be seen to be losing their respect for the lives of others simply because they want higher pay and better conditions of service or because they are working under a government that doesn’t care, that is insensitive to the plight of our people. When doctors and other health workers go on strike, people die; others suffer permanent disability.

It is assumed that an individual who opts for the rigour and long periods of study and certification required to qualify as a physician, has a passion for saving lives. Frequent recourse to strikes therefore negates this and presents doctors as callous and unfeeling, especially as those who pay the supreme price are the weak and vulnerable.

Frequent strikes will make doctors lose their respect by appearing to be behaving like shop-floor agitators. Our doctors should reconsider their tactics.

They should not revel in obtaining concessions from this uncaring and insensitive government at the cost of the loss of innocent lives. The strike weapon should be a last resort to be used sparingly and even then, provisions should be made for some health workers to be on hand for emergencies.

The government should address this strike by doctors with the seriousness it deserves. There is no need for this strike because the issues that are being raised by the doctors can be easily addressed by a caring and sensitive government. A lot of equipment could be bought if the government was to set its priorities correctly and in favour of the poor and vulnerable.

But here we have a government that abuses the funds and other resources of the Ministry of Health. This is a government that doesn’t hesitate to abuse funds allocated for the provision of healthcare to our people. The Ministry of Health has been the stealing ground for our public officers.

Instead of buying equipment, money allocated to the Ministry of Health is ending up in the pockets of government officials and officers through all sorts of stealing schemes ranging from workshops held at their own overpriced lodges, exorbitant sitting allowances and their expenses. It has also become common practice for those in power to abuse the resources of the Ministry of Health in their election campaigns.

And all this is being done at the expense of buying the much needed equipment for our hospitals and also at the expense of improved conditions of service for our doctors and other health workers. The doctors know all this because they see it every day and hence their frustration. It is not lack of money but its abuse that is causing critical problems in our health system.

It is this irresponsibility, this corruption that is the cause of dissension among our doctors and other health workers. The only way to resolve these problems is to remove the cause of dissension. If stability and harmony is to be established in our health system, the primary requisite is to eradicate the cause of this dissension.

Labels: DOCTORS, STRIKE

posted by MrK @ 8:06 PM