Zimbabwean, November 6, 2008 Harare - Zimbabwe’s public hospitals are discharging patients and closing wards because of a nationwide nurses' strike that has deepened the crisis in under-funded state hospitals. The strike comes amid a go-slow by senior doctors and full strike action by junior and middle-level doctors. A news crew from The Zimbabwean visited the city's two largest public hospitals -Harare and Parirenyetwa - and found that new patients were being turned away and outpatient departments were being closed. Some wards at the hospitals were empty ... Striking

Synodia Bhasera, Financial Gazette (Harare), January 17, 2008 Harare -
The government has rejected demands by doctors to be paid in foreign
currency, saying such a move was illegal. Sources involved in talks
between the Ministry of Health and striking state doctors said health
professionals had proposed that they should be paid in foreign
currency. ... Doctors working at state hospitals have since last year
gone on strike frequently to press for better salaries and working
conditions. At one time, the government resorted to roping in army
health personnel to fill the gap left by striking doctors and nurses,
but they could not cope with the large number of patients seeking care.
... Doctors

Wonder Guchu, The Herald (Harare), January 16, 2008 Harare - A hospital
is a boring place sometimes. What with hours and hours in the company
of the ailing and the maimed? What with the quiet nights when everybody
else has gone to bed? The hospital is a very empty place sometimes -
empty emotionally. Thrown in such a situation, creative souls do not
allow themselves to die emotionally but find ways of fighting the
emptiness and conquer that gnawing loneliness. Fifty-four years ago at
one such hospital in the then Salisbury, a group of bored nurses who
had nothing to do after work and during the weekend came together to
have some fun. ... When

Sapa-DPA, January 11, 2008 Harare - Desperate to stave off the threat
of strikes, President Robert Mugabe's government has awarded civil
servants a 50-percent cost of living adjustment, it emerged on Friday.
Civil servants in Zimbabwe will also be paid in two tranches this
month, the official Herald daily reported. "It is envisaged that the
advance salary will go some way towards helping civil servants meet
their day-to-day expenses until pay day," the Herald said in its
front-page story. There are believed to be more than 150 000 civil
servants, including teachers and nurses, in Zimbabwe. ... Civil

Lance Guma, SW Radio Africa, January 4, 2008 The president of the
Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, Amon Siveregi, has denied state
media reports that they have called off their strike action. ... The
state media claimed that nurses, together with other civil servants,
had received an additional Z$100 million on top of their December
salaries. It further claimed that several health workers interviewed
had confirmed the money was reflecting in their accounts and because of
this doctors and nurses had gone back to work. However it turns out the
money has been offered as loans repayable at 5 percent interest. The
doctors and nurses have rejected the offer. ... Doctors

Reuters, January 3, 2008 Harare - Some of Zimbabwe's striking state
doctors have returned to work on humanitarian grounds but most are
still holding out for higher pay, the head of the doctors' union said
on Thursday. Amon Siveregi, president of the Zimbabwe's Hospital
Doctors Association, told Reuters the industrial action had not been
called off, contrary to reports in the state media. ... Strikes by
government doctors and nurses have become a frequent occurrence as
their salaries have been eroded by the world's highest inflation rate -
officially put at about 8,000 percent, although analysts say the figure
could be double that. ... Some

The Herald (Harare), January 1, 2008 Harare - The Health Services Board
yesterday called on striking doctors and nurses to return to work while
it works on improving their salaries and conditions of service. In an
interview, HSB acting executive director Miss Nornah Zhou said a
consensus had been reached at a meeting in Harare yesterday with their
representatives. Miss Zhou said they agreed with representatives of
doctors and nurses that their members return to work today as their
grievances were being addressed. ... Striking

Sebastien Berger, London Telegraph, December 31, 2007 Zimbabwe's
doctors and nurses have gone on strike, dealing a new blow to a health
service already crippled by mismanagement. Like all state employees,
despite recent pay rises, the buying power of their salaries has been
hit by crippling inflation - now at 15,000 per cent. A doctor's monthly
income is Z$60 million - less than £15 - and basic commodities are not
available in shops even if they could afford them. ... Zimbabwe

MacDonald Dzirutwe, Reuters, December 30, 2007 Harare - Zimbabwe's
state-employed junior doctors and nurses are on strike for higher pay,
putting further strain on the country's crumbling public healthcare
facilities. Doctors and nurses have staged a series of strikes in
recent years as their salaries have been steadily eroded by the world's
highest inflation rate - currently officially running at about 8,000
percent in Zimbabwe. Thousands more continue to abandon the country in
search of better-paid jobs in South Africa, Britain and Australia,
hitting a sector burdened by shortages of drugs and the effects of HIV
and AIDS. ... Zimbabwe

AFP, December 30, 2007 Harare - Junior doctors and nurses at Zimbabwe's
major state hospitals have gone on strike to press for higher pay and
improved working conditions, their spokesman said Sunday. "All we want
are salaries that can sustain us. Given the economic situation we
realise giving any figures will not work so we are not proposing any
figures," Hospital Doctors' Association president Amon Severengi told
AFP. "We also want conditions that will be an incentive for us to
remain at work." ... Zimbabwe

Carole Gombakomba, Voice of America, December 24, 2007 Washington -
Casualty departments at the four main Zimbabwean government hospitals
in Harare and the second city of Bulawayo have closed due to a strike
by 350 junior residents, while sources said the government has not yet
responded to the walkout. ... Some nurses in the public health system
were also reported to be staying away from work citing a lack of money
for transport. The nurses submitted a strike notice to the government
on December 5, but it was unclear if a full strike was in progress. ...
Zimbabwe

Nqobizitha Khumalo, ZimOnline, December 20, 2007 Bulawayo – Mpilo
Hospital and the United Bulawayo Hospital (UBH) have shut down their
outpatients departments after junior doctors seconded to the
institutions refused to take up their posts citing lack of
accommodation facilities. ... Hundreds of doctors and nurses have fled
Zimbabwe over the past seven years to seek better paying jobs in
neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Botswana. ... Junior

The Herald (Harare) Editorial, June 16, 2007 Harare - Since the beginning of this month, over one million public servants have been on strike in South Africa and their industrial action has crippled schools and hospitals, forcing soldiers and police to step in to provide services and also protect innocent citizens. Not only that, thousands of heavily-armed troops have been deployed to patrol the streets to maintain order, and also protect citizens from rogue elements bent on violence and thugs keen to capitalise on the confusion. As the Sunday Times said of Cosatu this week, " ... threatening violence and inciting ordinary workers to turn into thugs is hardly the way to earn a decent wage," which is exactly what the ZCTU tries to do here (sic). ... National

Lucia Makamure, Zimbabwe Independent (Harare), June 15, 2007 Government in a desperate attempt to prevent a massive strike by workers in the public service last week started depositing allowances into civil servants' bank accounts to supplement their May salaries which they complained could not take them up to the end of the month. Doctors, nurses and hospital support staff called off their strike following the deposit of the allowances from government into their accounts over the weekend. President of the Hospital Doctors Association, Amon Severegi, confirmed that doctors had returned to work after government deposited allowances in their bank accounts over the weekend. "Doctors have returned to work and also other health workers and the hospital staff, we have been awarded an increment but with inflation on the rise, the money is likely to be nothing in a few months' time," said Severegi. ... Govt

Carole Gombakomba & Safari Njema, Voice of America, June 14, 2007 The chairman of the parliamentary committee on health said Thursday that conditions at Harare Hospital and at municipal health care centers in the capital are appalling - a reflection of his panel's finding that the national health system has collapsed. Blessing Chebundo said his panel toured Harare Hospital, Beatrice Infectious Disease Hospital and a council clinic in Highfield this week to assess the impact of a strike by health care personnel at government and city council hospitals and clinics. Municipal health workers in Harare went on strike April 13 over shortages of protective clothing. An employee at Beatrice Hospital said staff has returned, but that workers at clinics in Highfield, Warren Park, Kambuzuma and Mufakose are continuing a sit-in. A Harare court ruled June 1 that the health care staff could pursue their sit-in until the institutions ensure that they are provided with the necessary protective clothing. ... Zimbabwe