Maravi

UTH discharges patients as docs strikes enters day three

UTH discharges patients as docs strikes enters day three
By Salim Dawood
Thu 30 Sep. 2010, 15:50 CAT

Patients at Chawama clinic waiting to be attended to. Picture by Eddie Mwanaleza
THE University Teaching Hospital (UTH) has started discharging admitted patients while giving convenient treatment only to the high cost paying patients as the resident doctor’s strike enters day three.

And Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata has described as myopic chief government spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha’s statement that the doctors were being used by the opposition to discredit government’s achievement in the health sector.

Meanwhile Alliance for Democratic Development (ADD) president Charles Milupi has said the grievances of the striking resident doctors are genuine and must be treated seriously by those in government.

A check by Post Online at UTH this morning revealed patients at the low cost section had formed long winding queues and waited for long hours before seeing the senior doctors that are standing in for the striking resident doctors.
While patients waited to be attended to several wards had empty beds due to the discharging of patients.

There was also ceaseless traffic of wheelchairs and patients being wheeled to board taxis as they headed home.

Some discharged patients said they were told to go and continue medication from home because there was no point in remaining at a hospital were there no doctors
Others appealed to government to speedily attend to the concerns of the doctors so they could go back to work while some patients urged the resident doctors to come back to work and engage government about their plight while working.

“We have been here since 6:00 hours but we have not been attended to, am told the doctors are on strike but can’t they be working while negotiating for what they want because its us the innocent people that end suffering,” said one woman who had brought her husband who suffered a stroke.

A senior doctor who refused to be named told the Post Online that the hospital was only attending to ‘serious’ cases.

“We are only dealing with extremely serious cases, for those that are coming on appointments, they are just rescheduling their appointments,” he said.

Meanwhile University of Zambia (UNZA) medical students complained that their rotational schedules were disturbed as there were no patients to check on.
But UTH public relations officer Pauline Mbagweta said the strike action by the resident doctors had not affected operations at UTH.

“We are still operating normally because we have the senior doctors, the foreign doctors. They are all working. So they are able to cover areas where the doctors are striking,” she said.

“At this time we want to attend to critically ill patients, in essence that is what we are supposed to do anyway, that is what we are supposed to do in normal circumstances because this is referral hospital.”

Mbangweta said UTH admits was only discharging patients as it saw fit and not because of the strike action.

And PF leader Michael Sata described as myopic Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha’s statement that the doctors were being used by the opposition to discredit government’s achievement in the health sector.

Sata said the doctors were human beings and were more educated than Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha could ever be.

“Tell the disgraced Ronnie that doctors are human beings, more educated than Ronnie Shikapwasha will ever be. The doctors are very tolerant,” he charged.

Sata challenged Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha to be sincere and tell the nation how many doctors, nurses and paramedical personnel had left the country to seek greener pastures as a result of not being properly numerated.

He said the doctors that stayed in the country to offer their services should not be provoked by government.

“The way we look after Ronnie, its not even 20 per cent the way we look after our paramedics, so what is he saying? It’s not the first time he is saying it. Ronnie Shikapwasha and his minister friends are looked after well than our professionals,” Sata said.

He asked if Lt. Gen. knew how long it took to train a professional doctor and how many lives would been saved if the doctors had not gone on strike.

“Now they are running up and about, they go to Chawama and open a clinic and say we are decentralizing. You can’t decentralise UTH with buildings. You decentralise it with man power. Once you have human beings who can run these clinics then you are decentralising,” he said.

And on Minister of Health, Kapembwa Simbao’s statement that he did not know why the resident doctors were striking, Sata said the minister was a civil engineer who joined politics after learning that government does not care about professionals.

Sata wondered how negotiations for better conditions of service and improved salaries could take two years.

“Doctors and patients have been negotiating for two years, have you ever seen someone who can eat negotiations? Rupiah Banda brought the suggestions of salary increments for MPs and ministers yet doctors continue to suffer,” he said.

Sata observed that it did not take two years for President Banda and his Cabinet to increase their salaries but wondered why it should take more than two years to better the working conditions of doctors.

“The doctors don’t have night allowance, they don’t have hardship allowance, you don’t have anything to attract them as doctors,” he said.

Meanwhile ADD president Charles Milupi has said the grievances of the striking resident doctors are genuine and must be treated seriously.

Milupi said he was surprised that an educated person with many years of working experience like Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha belittle the concerns and suffering of the doctors.

He said doctors were highly trained and professional and that no politician had any influence on them.

Milupi said doctors going on strike was a serious problem and that the crisis would not be solved by Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha’s lies.

Resident doctor’s downed tools on Monday to press government for improved working conditions and an upward adjustment of salaries.

But Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha said the resident doctors were being used by the opposition to discredit government’s achievements in the health sector.

By Press time Resident Doctors Association of Zambia (RADZ) was locked in a meeting with government officials to resolve the strike.

Labels: DOCTORS, STRIKE, UTH

posted by MrK @ 7:52 PM