Frontline health workers are appealing for a $10 000 risk allowance per month, as they battle Covid-19, which has affected five people in Zimbabwe so far. The proposal is for the allowance to be given only to those at work.
In addition, the workers have proposed that only healthcare workers who can be provided with protective personal equipment (PPE) report for work at their stations.
The proposals follow a commitment by Government earlier this week that a risk allowance for the sector had been approved, while the distribution of PPE, some of which was donated by Chinese businessman Jack Ma, has began.
Government also committed to avail a substantial amount of money for a vehicle loan scheme for the health workers. Nurses and doctors had withdrawn their labour on Wednesday, demanding a risk allowance and PPEs.
The request by frontline health workers to have a risk allowance, coincides with an announcement by EcoSure yesterday that it plans to support the country’s national health delivery system by equipping frontline medical staff with PPE, provide them with life and health insurance and safe transport to and from work daily, for the next 12 months.
The Health Apex Council confirmed the need for a risk allowance after a Health Services Bipartite Negotiating Platform held in Harare on Thursday, where they insisted they were not on strike.
“We are not on industrial action. However, we do not encourage the health workers to attend work without PPE,” said the health workers in a statement. “Therefore, we propose that only health workers who can be provided PPE by the MoHCC (Ministry of Health and Child Care) should report for work at their stations since the hospitals are high risk areas on rotational basis. The health workers proposed a flat $10 000 per month as risk allowance for those at work.”
According to the statement, Government representatives were taking up the proposal to their principals.
Cassava Smartech, the parent company of the EcoSure insurance business’s CEO Mr Eddie Chibi yesterday said given the situation Zimbabwe finds itself in, they wanted to ensure all frontline medical staff were fully protected.
He said EcoSure was putting in place measures that gave the health workers confidence as they carried out their duty of primary patient care and as they saved lives.
-State Media