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Junior doctors are a critical cog in the health services delivery system given the general shortage of doctors in the country. It is these junior doctors who perform most of the duties especially at major referral hospitals such as Mpilo Central Hospital, United Bulawayo Hospitals, Harare Central Hospital and Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.

Each time these doctors go on strike, the impact is immediately felt because of the crucial services they provide. It is a fact that most senior doctors run their own surgeries and as such spend less time at government hospitals hence junior doctors do most of the work. It is important for government to appreciate the crucial role played by these doctors in the health services delivery system despite the fact that they will be under training.

The government should therefore come up with conditions of service that encourage the junior doctors to do their best and in the process improve the quality of health services at government hospitals and clinics. We want at this juncture to commend government for responding positively to an outcry by health workers who felt the proposed new contracts for junior doctors were draconian.

The junior doctors who have since resumed work after going on strike two months ago, refused to sign the new contracts. The government last month released proposals for new contracts for junior doctors in a move aimed at discouraging the interns from going on strike. The proposed contract provided the government the right to withhold salaries for interns should they fail to report for duty for more than a month or dock their pay depending on the number of days they were absent from work.

The contract stated that interns may be paid an on-call allowance that may also be subject to review. Female interns under the new contract were denied maternity entitlements. The junior doctors or interns were before the new contract entitled to benefits enjoyed by senior doctors.

The Health Services Board said following the rejection of the contracts by junior doctors, it is now revising the proposed contracts in liaison with the Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr David Parirenyatwa. The board said its legal department was reworking the contracts. The junior doctors have not been paid their salaries for the past two months and the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association attributed the delay to the contract deadlock.

The Health Services Board has however said there was no link between the delays in the doctors’ payments and the signing of the new contracts. The board said the delay in payments was due to delays in getting concurrence from Treasury. We have already stated the crucial role played by junior doctors in the health services delivery system so how are these doctors expected to perform their duties to the best of their abilities without salaries?

Allowing a situation whereby doctors go for two months without salaries is not acceptable as this compromises the quality of health services. We implore Dr Parirenyatwa to intervene and speed up the payment of these outstanding salaries.

It is also important to note that coming up with draconian rules and regulations is not the solution to industrial disharmony challenges. It is important for the Health Services board to come up with contracts that are acceptable to junior doctors and probably the way out is just to revert to the old system whereby the junior doctors enjoyed the same benefits as those of senior doctors.