A strike by junior doctors’ in Harare and Bulawayo entered its second day today with no solution in sight, a spokesman for the residents said.
Senior residents at the hospitals, who went out on strike in July, have not halted work, said Hospital Doctors Association President Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, but will meet Wednesday to discuss grievances and issues raised by the junior residents.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa could not be reached for comment.
A spokesman for the striking junior doctors, Simbarashe Ndhonda, said Zimbabwean Health Minister David Parirenyatwa has promised to meet with them next week to discuss their grievances. These include salaries below the official poverty line, inadequate accomodation and transport, and poor hospital facilities.
Sources said the casualty departments at Parirenyatwa Hospital and Harare Hospital in the capital, and Mpilo Hospital and Bulawayo United Hopsitals in Bulawayo, the country's second-largest city, were operating with skeleton staff or were closed.
Dr Henry Madzorere, health secretary in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai, told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the junior doctors are justified in going on strike because conditions continue to deteriorate in government hospitals.
More reports from VOA'S Studio 7 for Zimbabwe...