PHM-Exch> [PHM NEWS] PHM Statement on Doctors strike in Zimbabwe

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Linda Shuro <linda at phmovement.org>
From: Peninah Khisa <peninahkhisa at gmail.com>

I would like to express many thanks to all of you for your support, inputs
and ideas concerning health crisis on Doctors strike in Zimbabwe. As PHM
East and Southern Africa we are totally in support with the suggestions
made by CWGH for the government to make a swift response through the
Minister of Health to end this endemic crisis. PHM Global is in solidarity
with PHM East and Southern statement and they have signed the statement.

Below, find attached PHM statement for East and Southern in solidarity with
people of Zimbabwe and we call the government to bring the health crisis
into normalcy so that the people of Zimbabwe can enjoy their right to
health which is a fundamental human right.

Regards,

Peninah Khisa.




*PHM Solidarity Statement –Senior doctors strike in Zimbabwe *



The People’s Health Movement (PHM) supports the Community Working Group on
Health (CWGH) statement[1] <#_ftn1> highlighting the need for an urgent
political intervention to resolve the crippled health situation in
Zimbabwe, which has led to a strike by senior doctors.  Over the past few
days, senior doctors in Zimbabwe have downed tools protesting over the
terrible situation at the country’s major hospital (Parirenyatwa Hospital).
The hospital has no medicines, equipment and even sundries to assist
patients and the situation is similar in other hospitals, including Harare
Central hospital. The hospital situation should be treated as an emergency.
There is no urgency and lack of prioritisation, costing many lives
(including babies)[2] <#_ftn2>. Children in particular, who are the hope
for the future, are becoming unnecessarily disabled or dying at birth, all
preventable situations with the correct equipment, as explained by Dr Azza
Mashumba in her desperate cry for help. This ultimately puts great stress
on the hospital staff, but also stress and a financial burden not only on
struggling families and communities, but on the whole nation.



Zimbabwe's public health services have since Independence (1980) been a
buffer between people and the impoverishing and fatal impacts of ill health
caused ultimately by poverty and deteriorating environmental and social
conditions.  The massive decline in the public health sector is thus a
major crisis for poor people in the country, and leaves people starkly
exposed to severe risk.



People with chronic diseases like diabetes are struggling to meet costs of
their treatment.  Such groups have difficulty taking medications when they
do not have enough food to eat. We are concerned that the same lack of
information and silence that concealed the cholera epidemic in its early
stages is also leading to inadequate action on other health problems.  This
undermines an early response to preventing and managing these problems in
the community.



While there is significant health infrastructure and a highly literate
population, these assets are inadequate in the context of lack of medicine,
equipment, services and staff, leaving public hospitals and clinics
non-functional with consequences in preventable loss of life.



In all of this, CWGH urges the government of Zimbabwe to bring people back
into the centre of focus and to involve communities in their plans on the
way forward. Networks and community health workers have the ability to
organise and support primary health care, even under harsh conditions.



Only with public accountability and involvement in the health system can
the Zimbabwean people be assured that their health financing actually pays
for medicines, supplies and trained health workers to treat current
patients and to rebuild the national health system.



PHM supports the suggestions made by CWGH for the government to make a
swift response through the Minister of Health to end this “*endemic crisis
by widening the participation of stakeholders in the development and
implementation of policies for better health and developing innovative and
new approaches in management and delivery of services in ways which enhance
access, community satisfaction and local accountability*”[3] <#_ftn3>.





PHM therefore calls on the government:



·       To tackle the inequitable distribution of resources and poor
governance. It is unacceptable that lives are lost and yet many ministers
are receiving several cars each  in an economy suffering high levels of
unemployment, extreme fuel costs and very limited currency;

·       To ensure the correct and transparent use of existing health
financing strategies such as the Health Levy;

·       To honour its commitment to allocating 15% of the national budget
to the health sector;



We express our solidarity with the senior doctors and all health workers in
Zimbabwe. We pledge our support to health workers who work tirelessly in
the interests of their patients’ health and well-being, as part of their
commitment to realising their patients’ human rights, including the right
to health. Health is a fundamental human right and everyone must enjoy this
right.



We demand urgent action by the Zimbabwean government to make medicines,
equipment and sundries immediately available in all public health
facilities to restore health and life. We also demand the Zimbabwean
government respect its constitution which is the supreme law of the
country, as well as regional instruments and international treaties which
guarantees the right to enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of
physical and mental health. At this time there is an urgent need for relief
for those injured and displaced by the effects of the cyclone which has hit
Southern-Eastern Zimbabwe.

PHM is a global network bringing together grassroots health activists,
policy maker’s civil society organizations, practitioners, and academic
institutions from around the world, particularly from low and middle income
countries (L&MIC) www.phmovement.org .





*On behalf of the People’s Health Movement East and Southern Africa.*








*Signed by:*



*PHM Global.*



*PHM East and Southern Africa Region.*

------------------------------

[1] <#_ftnref1> CWGH Statement on Senior Doctors’ strike 13 March 2019

[2] <#_ftnref2>
https://www.newsday.co.zw/2019/03/horror-tales-of-rot-in-public-hospitals/

[3] <#_ftnref3> CWGH Statement on Senior Doctors’ strike 13 March 2019
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