Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) president Enoch Dongo said that the country’s public hospitals can operate without doctors, hence they cannot continue holding the country at ransom.
Dongo made the remarks on Monday when he appeared before the Health and Child Care Parliamentary Portfolio committee. He said:
We don’t need doctors for hospitals to function. The nurses worked tirelessly to save lives while the doctors were on strike.
We don’t even need these doctors at the helm of power, nurses can be good administrators and should qualify even for positions like medical directors and permanent secretaries.
They are not here 24/7 yet they had negotiations that resulted in them striking a deal with Strive Masiiwa and now they are getting RTGS $10 000.
Doctors declared incapacitation (a euphemism for poor salaries, lack of hospital equipment and poor working conditions) in September last year.
The majority of the doctors returned to work last month after Strive Masiyiwa‘s Higherlife Foundation availed ZWL$100 million for their remuneration.