No end to chaos affecting final-year medical students

High-level attempts to entice doctors and medical lecturers in Zimbabwe back to work and final-year medical students into examination halls have failed, with both parties pointing to the absence of a long-term solution. At the same time, there are rising fears of a medical brain drain in the country.

The University of Zimbabwe deferred the medical students’ examinations – originally due to start on 25 November – to 16 December after the students approached the high court claiming they had not had an opportunity to complete the requisite clinical training due to the doctors’ and medical lecturers’ strike that started on 3 September and saw 500 doctors being fired by the government.

In court papers, the students said fast-tracking the examinations would result in government offloading them into hospitals when they were half baked.

“The conduct of the respondents takes away our rights and seeks to offload us to the public without the requisite skill and knowledge,” they said.

Out-of-court settlement

In an interview with University World News, the students’ lawyer Obey Shava said when they went to court there was a directive from the judge to try and reach an out-of-court settlement resulting in the exams being deferred.

“The examinations have been deferred to December 16 but from where we stand, we don’t see those examinations happening at that time. Students maintain their position that they have not done clinical practicals as those who were supposed to supervise them were on strike and some have since left. The students must have practicals for an uninterrupted period of 12 weeks and at the moment their supervisors, the senior doctors, are on strike and there are no patients at public hospitals,” he said.

Last week, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa met a group of Catholic bishops acting as mediators in the matter and agreed to give striking doctors and medical lecturers a 48-hour reprieve to return to work without questions asked, following their sacking.

Around the same time, Higher Life Foundation (HLF), an initiative of the family of businessman Strive Masiyiwa, also announced a Z$100 million (more than US$6 million) training fellowship for 2,000 doctors who are in full-time employment at public teaching hospitals. The scholarship includes a non-negotiable allowance for RTGS$5,000 (less than US$250) per doctor, smartphones as tools of trade, as well as access to Z$10 million for equipment and Wi-Fi at major teaching hospitals across the country.

The scholarships were on condition that they return to work.

Rejection of offers

Medical lecturers and the striking doctors have rejected both the president’s reprieve and the scholarships, saying they do not address their conditions of service that have seen them “incapacitated” by eroded salaries after Zimbabwe’s inflation shot to more than 300% in September.

They said while they appreciate the role played by the Catholic bishops, the amnesty comes without a new offer on the table following their strike.

They said the scholarship condition that they must be back at work for them to be considered amounted to blackmail.

“Following the solidarity meeting we had today, it was agreed that we should STOP applying because HLF is trying to arm-twist us into accepting. We have received information that members are now being forced to sign [an] assumption of duty, which is now forcing our members back to work. Also, the government is asking for a list of those who applied which shows their finger in this HLF plan. So we are advising our members to withhold the HLF application processes with immediate effect. We will patiently wait in the trenches until there is a reasonable offer from the government,” said the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, the body under which supervising lecturers fall.

Meanwhile, the Coalition of African National Medical Associations has expressed fears of a medical brain drain as a result of the stand-off.

“Every year thousands of qualified doctors and other health professionals leave Africa for better remunerative offers and working conditions. In Zimbabwe in particular, it has been reported that the flight of doctors has been so overwhelming to prompt the unfortunate contemplation of recruitment of Cuban doctors by the Zimbabwean government to fill the gap, an act that undermines the genuine efforts of the Coalition of African National Medical Associations (CANMA) to convert the overwhelming brain drain of doctors from Africa to brain gain for continental development,” the organisation said in a statement.