Africa-Press – Mozambique. Resident doctors at the Beira Central Hospital (HCB), the largest hospital in central Mozambique, will begin an indefinite strike of overtime work on Monday, until outstanding payments for extra hours are made.
The announcement of the overtime strike was included in a letter sent by the resident doctors to the HCB Director-General, which Lusa accessed on Thursday. The professionals justified their action by noting that they have not received payments for over two and a half years for medical emergencies, weekend rounds, and holiday shifts.
According to the document from the group of around 60 doctors, the lack of payment has caused physical, emotional, and financial strain due to travel to the workplace and expenses for meals, as well as pressure from workload in the emergency department, which often lasts the entire day. This has affected not only their quality of life but also that of their dependents and their training as resident doctors.
“After several meetings with the hospital management, it became clear that there was a lack of clarity on when overtime payments for resident doctors from other departments would be made,” the letter to the Director-General stated.
In October, the HCB assured that delayed payments to resident doctors had already been regularised, attempting to prevent the announced strike by this group of professionals.
“At this moment, the money has already been disbursed and appears on the hospital’s financial platform,” said HCB spokesperson Bonifácio Cebola at the time, explaining the situation with “bureaucratic” problems related to the doctors’ original units and government transfers.
The health sector has faced strikes and work stoppages for four years, organised by the Association of United and Supportive Health Professionals of Mozambique (APSUSM), which includes around 65,000 healthcare workers from different departments.
On Monday, this association announced the extension of a strike for an additional 30 days, reporting that more than 725 people had died due to lack of care in health facilities since January, the period when the strike was initially declared to demand full payment of the 13th salary.
On the same day, the Mozambican Minister of Health described the strike of sector professionals as “a sadness,” acknowledging that problems remain following the announcement of the extended stoppage.
The Mozambican National Health System has also experienced significant pressure over the past three years, caused by strikes organised by the Mozambican Medical Association (AMM) demanding improvements in working conditions.
Mozambique trains over 200 doctors annually across six universities, following a near-total absence of professionals in the country immediately after independence 50 years ago, according to data from the Mozambican Medical Council, reported to Lusa in June last year.
Source: Lusa
