ZIMBABWE: Senior doctors join strike over sacking of 400 junior colleagues

A medical crisis may just play out in Zimbabwe after senior doctors downed tools in protest against the sacking of over 400 junior doctors who boycotted work in a lingering pay rise dispute.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the senior doctors’ association, SDHA, said that they would stop all emergency services henceforth until their junior colleagues have been reinstated.

The sacked doctors were “found guilty of absenting themselves from duty without leave or reasonable cause” for five or more days, according to a statement from the Health Service Board (HSB).

READ ALSO: Zimbabwe sacks more doctors over strike

The HSB said almost a third of all doctors – 516 out of 1,601 employed in government-funded hospitals – either have faced or will face disciplinary tribunals even as the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association has not commented on this latest news, but had earlier complained of intimidation, Reuters news agency reports.

The striking doctors are demanding a 500% salary increase, as a cushion against triple digit inflation with nurses in clinics also said to be on strike, demanding a living wage.

Many patients have reportedly been turned away while some have been sent home to die, local officials say.

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