Strike!
Posted by anjasmith on June 15, 2009
(Above: Nurses’ strike worsens situation at hospitals” – nurses and doctors strike in response to a major corruption scandal at the ministry of health 10 billion Kwacha scam. 1USD=5500ZK, and 1€=7000ZK. – photo courtesy of a friend)
Right now the UTH is in a state of chaos. The doctors are striking, the nurses are striking and the patients seem to be striking as well because the wards are empty.
The government is keeping suspiciously quiet, the media is painting fantasy pictures of the situation and I’m stuck in the middle wondering why my friends are nowhere to be seen.
My best friend here in Zambia is also a student nurse, and she, amongst all the other students are being put to work.
This of course makes the nurse’s strike completely ineffective because they are using (or in my opinion abusing) med students and nursing students. The nursing teachers are also being put to work along side the students.
Uth has promised some kind of pay for the students, but its still not yet confirmed.
Today I spoke to one of the resident surgeons, and he informed me that the doctors will be going back to work tomorrow, following negotiations, but nothing has been finalized yet.
In my opinion, if you want a strike to be successful you should not give the government any options to bail out, or to cheat by using cheap labour. When the nurses were striking in Finland in late 2007, they went to extremes by actually threatening to quit their jobs (check out my post on the subject), and the student nurses signed an agreement that they will not work as substitutes when the registered nurses are striking. It came down to a bitter fight with people blaming anything and anyone and the media of course confusing people more than informing them, but in the end the nurses won because they stuck together. I think the nurses deserved to win and I was happy that things turned out the way they did because it affects my future too.
However when I look at the situation here in Zambia, it is clear to anyone that the nurses here are the most under appreciated, under paid and overworked workers, and yet they are the most vital together with doctors. It makes me very sad to see that a government seems to care so little about its health care workers by letting things spiral out of control like this.
I feel for the students, because they deserve, if anything, a better future than a monthly 1,3 million Kwacha (=€185) paycheck.
Health tip: try not to get sick in times like these….
