By Own Correspondent| Medical practitioners and their employer are today set to meet in what analysts have described as a crunch meeting following latest developments which have seen the feud between government and junior doctors escalating.
The health practitioners, had to reschedule their press conference an hour earlier following confirmations that they were set to meet the health and child care minister Dr Obediah Moyo and other unconfirmed senior government officials.
Said a source privy to the developments:
“There is an urgent meeting where we are going to meet the health and child care minister and we are hoping that the meeting will open up avenues of dialogue and resolve the current health crisis in our country.”
Said the medical practitioners in a press statement:
As senior medical practitioners working in Public Health Institutions (Consultants and senior registrars), we have noted with concern the way the protracted and on-going collective job action by the junior and middle level doctors has been handled and the impact this has had on patients, community and the profession.
As seniors we feel that the following areas are of grave concern:
• Health service units work as teams therefore the absence of the juniors and middle level doctors and any other members of the team critically compromises all aspects of heath service delivery to patients, their communities and the public at large;
• This period has come on the background of a health system that was already struggling to definer meaningful basic services;
• This impasse has further crippled the provision of health service to the public. There were negotiationson conchtionsof service and remuneration that appear to have stalled,
• The actions by the Health Services Board (suspensions and pending dismissals of junior doctors) following the Court ruling is extremely unfortunate and closes the door to dialogue. We believe dialogue is the key to resolving this impasse and all professional issues. We strongly urge the HSB to reconsider their stance.
As Consultants we find the situation at the public health institutions no longer tenable. We stand with the Junior doctors in seeking a speedy resolution of these matters.
Therefore we are urging HSB. to resolve this impasse within the next 48 hrs. Consultants have been working very hard under these very difficult circumstances and will not be able to continue beyond the stated time period.
We believe the door to dialogue must never be closed and we hope the E. considers this statement in the good spirit it has been delivered.
From the Consultants and Senior Registrar at Public health institutions.
This is a developing story. More details to follow.
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