Zimbabwe's pain increases as doctor strike drags

HARARE, Jan 18 (Reuters) Simbarashe Mwerenga hobbles on crutches into one of Zimbabwe's government hospitals, struggling to move despite the searing pain of a back injury.

But far from getting quick relief, Mwerenga was forced to join a ragged queue of desperate patients at Zimbabwe's struggling medical centres where a strike by junior doctors has all but halted treatment.

Mwerenga could not have injured his back at a worse moment.

Zimbabwe's public health system, barely functional at the best of times, has all but collapsed in recent weeks, adding to the woes of people grappling with galloping inflation, economic meltdown and regular shortages of food and fuel.

''It is terrible, having to bear the pain, while waiting endlessly for help,'' said Mwerenga, who had waited for six hours at Harare's Parirenyatwa hospital with no sign of assistance.

''No one is telling us what is happening. Why can't they just give them (doctors) what they want?'' Hundreds of junior doctors and nurses, the backbone of the public health system, have walked off the job to demand a wage increase of more than 8,000 percent -- a sign of the desperation caused by Zimbabwe's rocketing inflation rate, now at well over 1,000 percent.

The doctors have earned 224 dollar a month since another strike last July.

Parirenyatwa, once the jewel of Zimbabwe's medical facilities, has become a giant waiting room with only a skeleton staff available to treat life-threatening cases.

The hospital, usually a hive of activity, was nearly empty with only a few people shuffling in, while others sat restlessly on rickety benches.

Security guards stationed outside the hospital perform quick triage, and turn away people whose complaints are deemed less than urgent.

Private healthcare, where charges went up by 100 percent this month, is limited to only a few of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people and most people rely on under-funded public facilities already creaking under the burden of HIV/AIDS and regularly hit by shortages of drugs and equipment.

''Our other option would be to go to council clinics, but there are no drugs. Private clinics are too expensive,'' says Tapera Ndaba, a 24-year old kidney patient.

GIVING UP Parirenyatwa hospital has been all but emptied by the strike, with many sick people simply giving up on accessing treatment.

Only a few senior doctors -- who are not employed by the government but serve as consultants -- could be seen attending to patients in the treatment rooms.

A strongly worded memo posted at the entrance of the hospital, written by the Hospital Doctors Association, accuses the senior doctors of ''selling out'' by failing to withdraw their services in sympathy with junior doctors.

At a meeting held on Monday, junior doctors turned down pleas to end the boycott, arguing that their demands were legitimate as inflation was rising beyond control.

''The ministry says it has a new package for us, but we have said we need to know what it is ... we need figures before calling off the strike,'' association president Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa told Reuters.

Health Minister David Parirenyatwa, whose father gave his name to the Harare hospital, has appealed to the doctors to return to work while their demands are looked into, but he has not publicly stated any wage offers.

The Zimbabwe's main congress of trade unions has accused the government of failing to handle the issue urgently.

''We demand that government should, as a matter of urgency, address the needs of striking doctors in order to avoid loss of lives at hospitals,'' ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe said in a statement.

Reuters SP GC0957