Zim patients between a rock, hard place

ZTN Reporter

Patients around Zimbabwe requiring specialist medical care have been left stranded due to the more than four months long doctors strike.

The country’s hospitals are not operating at full throttle as the impasse between the doctors and their employer – the government – continues.

A visit to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare on Monday revealed that patients are having to wait for long hours before being attended to by the few available doctors.

“I have been here for hours and chances are I may go back home without getting medical attention. This situation is unbearable and we urge the government and the doctors to find each other as soon as possible,” said one patient.

But there seems to be some sun shining.

On Tuesday the Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Doctors Association said the doctors had agreed to scale up services at referral hospitals in the wake of the untold suffering that this impasse has caused.

“In a meeting of the members of the SHDA on 20 January 2020, members agreed to upscale from only offering emergency services to include the urgent cases which could not be assisted all along based on the assessment done by the executive.

“This is meant to ease the suffering of the masses who are the consumers of our services despite the lack of commitment from the Ministry of Health and Child Care,” reads part of the statement.