DOCTORS FUME!
DOCTORS DEMAND APOLOGY FROM SYLVIA MASEBO
Zambia Othopeadic and Trauma Association
■ “We will not sit idly watching the wanton verbal abuse and harassment of health workers.”
■ “We wish to state to the minister that there is nothing wrong with Doctors having more than one job as long as deliverables are met at the their places of work”
■ “We strongly detest the confrontational approach by the minister of health against doctors and other health workers including nurses and pharmacists”
■ “We find it most unfortunate that the minister is in the forefront of eroding the confidence of the public in Zambia’s health system by her underhand antagonistic approach.”
■ “We strongly detest the confrontational approach by the minister of health against doctors and other health workers including nurses and pharmacists.”
The incident witnessed yesterday, 11 May 2023, at Kitwe Teaching Hospital wherein a senior medical doctor who is a hospital head and government official was publicly dressed down leaves much to be desired.
We wish to register our concern over the wanton attacks on health workers by the minister of health. We find it most unfortunate that the honourable minister has continued to attack and undermine her own ministry.
We wish to state to the minister that there is nothing wrong with Doctors having more than one job as long as deliverables are met at the their places of work.
The practice of having more than one job is not unique to Zambia, it is the norm in many other countries. Doctors, like other workers have needs that cannot be met by a government salary alone.
Those needs include investing in their own career progression for themn to continue improving their craft. We do not see the need for health workers to justify having more than one job especially in economic times such as these.
Government health workers are merely employees they are not government property.
What they do after hours is their business. We do not see the need for anyone regardless of their social, political, religious or economic status, to disparage our medical doctors.
The doctors that are being disparaged are the same ones that put their lives on the line at the height of the pandemic during which time we lost some of the finest doctors (and nurses) in the line of duty. The least the minister or anyone else would do is to be grateful.
We strongly detest the confrontational approach by the minister of health against doctors and other health workers including nurses and pharmacists.
We will not sit idly watching the wanton verbal abuse and harassment of health workers.
We have noted with great concern the tendency by the minister to use incomplete information to build narratives to in order to demonise health workers.
We contend that the most important component of any health system is public confidence in it.
We find it most unfortunate that the minister is in the forefront of eroding the confidence of the public in Zambia’s health system by her underhand antagonistic approach. The bias against Zambian health workers is most unfortunate.
Neither playing to the gallery nor demonising health workers will solve the myriad of problems dogging the ministry of health, the solution is real and effective leadership.
Neither playing to the gallery nor demonising health workers will solve the myriad of problems dogging the ministry of health, the solution is real and effective leadership.
What is bewildering is that we have never seen this practice of abusing workers in any other ministry, except in the ministry of health. We would like to learn why this is the case and how undermining ones own ministry will yield positive results.
What we expect from the minister is a professional, evidence driven and inclusive approach to finding solutions to our health problems. Playing to the gallery will not move the needle.
We hope that the minister will have a conciliatory approach to leading her own ministry and we expect to see nothing short of an improvement and a greater degree of professionalism in her approach in dealing with her own ministry of health.
Dennis Sakala (Dr)
ZOTA President
12th May 2023