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Loveness Bepete Chronicle Reporter
Government junior doctors have said they will go on strike today to push for higher pay and improved working conditions following the expiry of an ultimatum they issued two weeks ago.

Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association president, Dr Fortune Nyamande said about 400 government doctors, a majority of them junior practitioners were starting their indefinite strike today.

“It’s a full blown indefinite strike for all government hospital doctors and if things aren’t addressed, we won’t go back to work,” he said.

Early this month the doctors who serve at hospitals that include Parirenyatwa, United Bulawayo, Mpilo Central and Chitungwiza issued an ultimatum to the government to review their salaries.

They requested an upward review of the basic salary for junior doctors who they said are receiving about $282 every month, to a minimum of $1,200 per month exclusive of allowances.

They resolved that the government must not charge all doctors residing in government provided accommodation the current rates of $250, adding that rates for bachelors’ flats should be reduced to $37 and $45 for one bed roomed flats. They said the government must reinstate the duty free facility where doctors can import vehicles without paying duty.

In a statement last week ZHDA said the government had failed to deliver. “We’ve lost confidence that the government has any concrete, verifiable and practical plans to review our working conditions and the association has been directed by its members to call for a peaceful nationwide strike by October 27,” the statement said.

Dr Nyamande said doctors will not go back to work until the government formally responds to their demands.

Asked if the strike was not going to cripple health delivery services like it did in 2009, Dr Nyamande said that was for the government to think about.

The Minister of Health and Child Care Dr David Parirenyatwa and his deputy Dr Paul Chimedza could not be reached for comment yesterday.