Overloaded by work, senior doctors at pubic hospitals in Zimbabwe have joined a two-week strike by their junior counterparts in solidarity with them.
Spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) Francis Rwodzi told Xinhua Thursday that the full-scale doctors' strike had crippled the country's already weakened health delivery system battling staff, equipment and drug shortages.
"The middle-level doctors wrote to the ZHDA saying that they will not be able to continue rendering their services because the amount of work is now too much for them," Rwodzi said.
He said the middle-level doctors were complaining that they were also getting little from government and yet the amount of work had increased.
Rwodzi said the situation at government hospitals was now dire, indicating that at Mpilo, the second largest hospital in the second largest city of Bulawayo had literally closed due to absence of doctors.
"The situation is now very dire. It's going out of hand and it raises serious questions about the political will of the Health Services Board and the Ministry of Health to address this problem, " he said.
Rwodzi said the doctors were now seeking a meeting with President Robert Mugabe for a solution to their grievances.
The doctors are demanding that their salaries be raised from the current 282 U.S. dollars to 1,200 dollars per month and to be given free accommodation.
The cash-strapped government has pledged its commitment to addressing working conditions for the health personnel.