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We'll pay you, PM promises medics
2005-06-25 08:04:34
By Joyce Mkinga
The government finally bowed to pressure yesterday and promised to better the perks of medical practitioners in public hospitals as the one-week strike by intern doctors and their seniors at Muhimbili National Hospital threatened to paralyse health services in the country.
Prime Minister Federick Sumaye said yesterday that the government would improve the salaries of doctors, nurses and other employees to reflect the current cost of living.
Sumaye cautioned, however, that the proposed pay hikes were contingent upon rapid economic growth that would sustain the government’s wage bill, which currently is 'too big'.
'It is all a question of ability. We would very much like to raise the salaries of our employees, but this is difficult given the current state of the economy,' he said.
Sumaye made the remarks after visiting Muhimbili National Hospital, where intern doctors, supported by resident doctors and registrars, had laid down tools to protest a pay cut.
The interns demanded a reversion to 200,000/- per month allowance rates, instead of the current 160,000/-, which the government adopted after slashing their stipends.
The government responded by directing them to resume work or risk their services being terminated.
The doctors called off the strike after the government agreed to meet their demands unconditionally.
The end of the strike came as a relief to the hospital, which had resorted to giving patients new appointments after the remaining 40 of doctors succumbed to exhaustion and decided to close down the hospital pending the outcome of the negotiations between the Ministry of Health and the doctors.
One of the most embarrassing results of the stand off between the medics and the government was the death of a Member of Parliament, Margareth Bwana, who succumbed to a cardiac arrest after failing to get specialised treatment at the largest referral hospital in the country because of the strike.
Sumaye expressed optimism that current pace of economic growth is good news for civil servant as they would be entitled to better salaries in the near future.
He noted that the Ministry of Health and the doctors had agreed on priority issues that would be solved immediately, while others would be put on a pending list.
'The demands that are within our capacity will be dispensed with immediately but those beyond our means will have to wait,' he said.
The one-week strike adversely impacted on the operations of the hospital, resulting many deaths.
The management at hospital said yesterday that, although the number of inpatients had gone down during the period of strike, the death toll remained 'normal' – between 10 and 17 deaths per day.
However, 22 patients died after the overwhelmed specialist doctors resorted to giving patients new appointments on Thursday.
MNH Executive Director David Tregoning told reporters yesterday that he was happy that the interns and resident doctors were back to work and that the hospital would now provide better services to the patients.
'We are very happy that they are back to work. The patients would no longer wait for a long time to get treatment,' he said.
He told the interns: Welcome back, and welcome back to work.
Nonetheless, the interns have given the government one week to refund the 1.2m/- that was deducted from their allowances.
'We have given the government up to next Friday to pay us the money. Otherwise we will resume the strike,' Yusuf Andrew, the chairman of the interns, said.
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