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Interns: It pained us to see patients dying
2005-06-25 08:07:38
By Judica Tarimo
Intern doctors at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) whose services were terminated on Monday following a dispute over stipends have resolved to resume work 'humanitarian' grounds after the government stepped in and promised to look into their grievances yesterday.
'We have agreed to continue working. We thought that it is not fair to continue striking while poor women, men and children are dying,'one of the interns’ leaders, Dr Laurimbe Silangei, said.
'While the government sorts out our allowance demands, we have decided to go back to work to save the lives of fellow Tanzanians,' he said.
Doctors from across the country were up in arms on Thursday, pressurising the government to reinstate the interns unconditionally and pay their allowances, including arrears.
Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT) members called an emergency meeting on Monday and resolved to stage demonstrations in Dar es Salaam if the government failed to resolve the impasse between the interns and the Ministry of Health.
The decision to hold demonstrations, was however, rescinded after Deputy Health Minister Dr Hussein Mwinyi gave in to doctors’ demands to reinstate interns and pay all their allowances.
An on-spot check by The Guardian revealed that the interns had resumed duty and were busy attending to patients in the wards and clinics.
'Everybody (interns) is now at work. I am happy that at the last the government agreed to look into our grievances and promised to pay us,' said one interns.
The interns and doctors said they had given the government a seven-day ultimatum to implement decisions that were arrived at yesterday, failing which they would call another strike.
'The government’s verbal promise is not enough. We’ll meet on July 2, to review the progress made in implementing our demands,' said Dr Silangei.
The resolutions reached by medics at the meeting include payment of interns’ allowances and arrears, an increase of doctors’ salaries to 1.2m/-, first class medical treatment for medical doctors in Tanzania and government and MNH officials to apologise to doctors for 'throwing the medical profession into disrepute'.
“We formed a special committee at the meeting to follow up on these issues.
I hope, we will get a feedback soon,” said one of the interns.
MAT president Joseph Kahamba said the committee was yet to meet to discuss the pending issues.
'We will meet as soon as possible to deliberate on the resolutions,' Dr Kahamba said, without giving details.
Speaking to reporters, MNH Executive Director David Tregoning said:We are happy that the discussions and negotiations over the interns’ problems were resolved amicably.
He hoped that operations and service delivery at the hospital would be back to normal after the interns agreed to resume work.
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