Senior doctors at Zimbabwe’s public hospitals went on strike on Tuesday to protest against the dismissal of junior colleagues who have boycotted work over pay for nearly three months, deepening a crisis in the country’s health sector.
Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade that has seen resurgent inflation soaring to three-digit levels, eroding salaries and savings and re-igniting memories of the hyperinflation era of a decade ago.
Senior doctors had continued to provide emergency services after their junior colleagues stopped working on Sept. 3. to demand higher pay. At least 448 junior doctors have been fired and many more are awaiting disciplinary hearings.
“We are no longer able to offer any emergency services as from the 26th of November 2019 … until all the fired doctors are reinstated and there is adequate redressal of their incapacities,” the Senior Hospital Doctors’ Association (SHDA) said in a statement.
