Zimbabwe: Junior doctors end strike and return to work

Junior doctors in Zimbabwe have ceased industrial action and returned to work after a strike which lasted more than 100 days. 

An official for Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association said in a statement that “Junior doctors have returned to work, but if you get in the wards there is not much progress being done as junior doctors are monitored by senior doctors. They complement each other to get the work done”. 

Senior doctors have not yet returned to their posts and on Tuesday renewed their commitment to the strike, despite the government withdrawing their salaries. 

The junior doctors had been on strike since September, with senior physicians joining the walk-out in November. The strike was called after Zimbabwe’s government refused pleas by doctors to peg their salaries to the US dollar. This resulted in 448 junior doctors being fired for failing to return to work. A deescalation was only achieved after Catholic bishops intervened, urging President Emmerson Mnangagwa to allow the doctors to return to work without being questioned. 

Senior physicians are now holding out for increased salaries, improved equipment and the termination of so-called ‘flexi hours’ for nurses, which they maintain is dangerous to patient care. The government has said it will only consider redressing these grievances if doctors return to work. 

Photo credit: Zimbabwe Situation