Hope for patients as military doctors replace strikers

The plight of patients at Tanzania's main referral hospital is likely to ease following the deployment of 75 doctors from military and research institutions to replace doctors who were sacked after a weeklong strike to press for better pay. "At least 16 military doctors are now in the wards on familiarisation, and some have already started attending patients," Brig-Gen Yandon Kohi, a consultant neurosurgeon in charge of the military team at the troubled Muhimbili National Hospital, told reporters on Friday. "We hope by tomorrow [Saturday] evening, all those who have been directed to leave the barracks and report here will be available," Kohi said. In addition to his military post in the Tanzania Peoples Defence Forces, Kohi also heads his country's Commission of Science and Technology. He said the military doctors had been deployed to priority departments including maternity, surgery, medicine and ear, nose and throat. Patients at the hospital welcomed their arrival. "We have seen them going around with nurses, who are briefing them on the history of patients. It is gives us hope," remarked Said Abdallah, a patient. "These people seem to be more serious with their work. When one is told to do something he just salutes and starts working, with no time for complaining," another patient said. The chairman of the hospital's governing board, Abdulrahman Kinana, said the situation was expected to ease by Monday, when a total of 40 army doctors and 35 more from the various departments and research institutions under the Ministry of Health report for work at the hospital. The move follows a government decision on Wednesday to sack 52 junior doctors who, along with at least 100 medical interns, continued to strike despite the government's agreement to increase the minimum monthly salary for doctors from 226,860 shillings (US $193) to 403,120 shillings ($342) effective January 2006. Kinana said nurses who had joined the doctors in the strike reported to work after the government issued an ultimatum for them to do so on Tuesday. On Thursday, he reported, 10 junior doctors who were on strike and had been sacked wrote to the government asking to be pardoned. The hospital's board accepted their requests. "We were pleased to accept them back because they asked for pardon in writing," Kinana said. "In fact, this shows that we are very flexible people, unlike their colleagues who are very rigid despite the government's efforts to review their salaries, almost doubling the minimum package." Kinana explained that the government had suspended the programme for the dismissed medical interns pending further instructions. They had been directed to vacate their apartments within the hospital's premises. The replacement doctors would remain at the hospital for as long as they were needed, he said. There were also plans in place to deploy more doctors from police departments, prisons and other government institutions. "In its ideal state, Muhimbili needs about 100 doctors," he observed. The medical interns and junior doctors at the hospital began their strike on 17 November, demanding improved working conditions and a minimum monthly doctor’s salary of 1.2 million shillings ($1,000). During the strike, bed occupancy at the 1,400-plus bed facility declined, as several patients had been directed to private hospitals. On Friday, members of the public interviewed on the streets of Dar es Salaam condemned the doctors for continuing to strike even after the government had increased their salaries. Stella Ngowi, a teacher, said the doctors should go back to work and keep in mind that they deal with human life, which is so precious. "They are not doing it the right way," she said. "We know that their services are indispensable,” said Faruz Hassan, a businessman. "But you should cooperate with someone who raises your salary by 100 percent to over 400,000 shillings a month [$340] in a country where the annual per capita income is less than $300." The latest strike is the facility's second work stoppage since June, when interns at the hospital who conducted a weeklong strike were sacked. The government rescinded its decision, however, after Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye visited the hospital and declared the crisis over, promising to deal with the problems the interns were facing. On 24 June, Sumaye said the government understood the plight of the interns but had been unable to improve their allowances because of the country's financial difficulties.