adminMake A Difference with Bea
The doctors’ strike has finally ended. What a relief. The past three weeks were a bad time to be sick! Just imagine being sick at a time junior and senior doctors at our public, provincial and district health institutions were downing tools? At times like these people die and die in huge numbers.
The situation at our public health institutions has never been a particularly pleasant one.
But then when a hospital visit ever pleasant? Truth be told, if we were all to be given a choice none of us would ever want to see the inside of a hospital. But things happen.
One thing human beings cannot control is when one will fall sick and when something serious enough to warrant medical attention will happen.
Thus it is not a matter of choice. It is a matter of life and death.
It is for this reason that we are now calling upon Government to urgently look into this issue and find a lasting solution to it.
Having doctors persist with this strike will have disastrous results on us as a nation. I remember a period many Zimbabweans literally want to forget; the period when the health delivery system was virtually in tatters. Just going by Harare or Parirenyatwa Hospital was depressing. Morale among health personnel was at an all-time low and this was evident in the way they treated patients. Those are the days when nurses became well known for being rude to patients.
Even as a visitor you would literally walk on eggshells as they were known to snap at visitors too.
Do we not remember stories of patients falling off the bed because they would have tried to reach for something?
Or some mothers delivering on the floors? Or some people losing their lives as a result of the negligence thereof? These are documented facts. We remember how the equipment was just never adequate or available? These are the days when you had to pay for everything that would be used on your relative in a public health facility including injectables and blood.
Did we not sigh in relief when the system actually started to function again?
It was now common to see nurses and doctors actually smiling and people getting well. But today, that nightmare is back. If this situation continues, more lives will be lost.
While I will not focus on the merits of the demands that the doctors are making, believing that the issue of salaries is one that their employer should deal with.
If they truly earn less than $300 in this Zimbabwe that we all live in, then it is a sorry plight they are in.
To be honest what does one do with $300? How do you even begin to meet your expenses or send a child to school? Yes, these are difficult times where money is hard to come by not just for Government but even for the private sector; but the doctors’ salaries need to be looked into. Of course what they are asking for may not be possible and sustainable in our current situation but they do deserve some serious attention.
After all theirs is a job which needs to be done wholeheartedly. Someone needs to be in a good space to be able to deliver someone to good health. I would not want an absent minded doctor or angry nurses attending to me. But we all know that those who go to public health facilities rarely have a choice. They go there because there is nowhere else to go. With the prevailing situation where medical aid, which used to afford several people access to private medical care; is fast becoming irrelevant however; the headaches may just be worse as many more of us may find ourselves trekking to the overburdened public health sector; where alas the doctors are not at work.
There is need for a win-win situation here. Truth be told, there is no way Government can afford the figures being thrown around by the doctors. The money is just not available. In Zimbabwe today even private companies are struggling to remain afloat and to pay salaries. But there is no way too that doctors can be expected to live on what they are currently earning. What then shall the way forward be?
There are also issues around the Hippocratic Oath which some have been bringing into the discussion. But I always say when one is hungry and desperate; oaths are not the first thing that will come to mind. You try it! Try and remember what made you apply for your job when you have not been paid and working conditions are deteriorating daily. It becomes difficult to remember the passion that used to drive you to wake up early daily to go to work.
Today’s employees are increasingly complex as Human Resources Management theory tells us. They are increasingly qualified and aware of their rights. They believe in motivation. Today they have needs and like to feel they matter. If motivated, they will perform at optimum. Money is not the only thing that motivates them. Hence the doctors’ issue may just need them having an audience with the right people who they would like to be recognized by. Instead of people attacking them for going on strike and showing disregard for the sick, maybe it is high time someone also heard their story. These doctors are human. They live in society. They are fathers, mothers, husbands and wives. They have parents and siblings. They have relatives who utilize the public health system. They too are patients in other scenarios. That should never be forgotten. But then again the doctors must also remember that theirs is an essential service. They are in the business of saving lives. Shall they stand by while people die? Can they not go to work while their issues are being addressed? For this, we applaud those who have continued to work. This is after all a matter of life and death. It makes the difference of Zimbabwe being a healthy nation or not.
Online Reporter