Striking registrars ask to return to work, studies

Postgraduate medical students at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), striking over conditions in public hospitals, last week bowed to pressure and made an appeal to the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education to be allowed back into hospitals, and to be able to continue their studies.

Some of the junior doctors, currently training at the university to be specialists and known as registrars, confirmed via WhatsApp that their representative had contacted the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Professor Amon Murwira, seeking a reversal of the ministry’s decision to bar postgraduate medical students from public hospitals and the closure by UZ of its Master of Medicine and Master of Obstetrics and Gynaecology programmes.

The doctors who communicated with University World News said the minister suggested that the request be put in writing. The decision to shutter the programmes and bar the registrars from hospitals was communicated in a letter to students dated 23 September by the UZ Dean of Medicine and Health Sciences Faculty, Dr Noah Mutongoreni.

It followed demands by the doctors to the Ministry of Health and Childcare of Zimbabwe for improved conditions that would enable better service delivery at public hospitals.

The strike takes place against the backdrop of a government directive that all graduating medical students will only be employed by the Ministry of Defence and not the Ministry of Health, a move critics say is tantamount to forcing them to join the army.

In a recent discussion in the senate questions were raised about the government wanting all 230 medical students who are graduating this year to join the Ministry of Defence. The directive follows the appointment of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, a retired general, to the position of the country's health minister.

‘Not a punishment’

In an article published by The Sunday Mail in Zimbabwe on 27 September, Murwira said the decision to freeze the postgraduate programmes was not meant to be a “punishment but a reaction to the students' action to withdraw their services”. He said the government would consider withdrawing this decision if the student doctors issued an official plea.

A letter by the doctors, leaked on social media platforms last week, outlined some of the “minimum requirements” they said were crucial for them to resume their clinical duties at hospitals and provide quality services to expectant mothers.

Among these were personal protective equipment in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, provision of electronic foetal monitors, the reopening of theatre rooms, a conducive work-study environment, and adequate nursing staff levels.

In July, Harare Central Hospital reportedly recorded seven stillborn births in one night, with challenges pointing to lack of equipment, medicines and inadequate staffing.

A meeting co-hosted by Women’s Action Group and Chengeto Zimbabwe Trust on maternal health on 30 September identified that the massive rise in maternal mortality rates in the country was largely due to a crisis caused by healthcare worker strikes and the worsening socioeconomic conditions that had left many women unable to afford basic healthcare.

During the dialogue, parliamentarians and civil society groups agreed to advocate for a 15% increase in healthcare financing.

Student doctors have been part of industrial action over the past two months, aimed at pushing for an improvement in working environments and better salaries. Doctors in Zimbabwe are among some of the lowest paid healthcare workers in Africa, currently earning a minimum of ZW$9,000 per month (roughly equivalent to US$115).

The medical students have reiterated their commitment to providing quality maternity care which would only be possible in an enabling environment.

“It is our expectation that both the hospital and university treat us as qualified doctors and post-graduate students and not merely cheap labour providers,” they said in their letter to the head and chair of department at the University of Zimbabwe, and the hospital clinical director.

No bail for student activist

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) president Takudzwa Ngadziore will remain in jail after High Court Justice Davison Foroma on 6 October reserved his ruling on Ngadziore's bail appeal, filed by his lawyer Webster Jiti of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

Ngadziore was arrested and charged in September for allegedly addressing a media briefing outside the premises of Impala Car Rental, the company that allegedly rented out the vehicle used in the abduction of university activist Tawanda Muchehiwa by suspected state agents in Bulawayo.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government has recently come under fire at home and abroad for its intolerance to dissent, which has seen political activists and journalists arrested and church leaders attacked by the government for voicing their concerns on rising human right abuses.