Zimbabwe calls in army doctors as strike continues

HARARE, Jan 20 (Reuters) Zimbabwe's government has called in army medical officers to staff hospitals paralysed by a doctors' strike, the health minister said today.

Hundreds of junior doctors and nurses have been protesting since late December 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 1,200 per cent.

''We are mobilising the army medical corps to alleviate the situation,'' Health Minister David Parirenyatwa told Reuters.

''We started with 14, but more should come on board as we are mobilising all the time ... we're doing our best to restore services to normal.'' Junior doctors have earned around 56,000 Zimbabwe dollars a month since a previous strike, in July.

The latest action has further strained a public health system that is barely functional at the best of times, and has to struggle with a heavy load from HIV/AIDS infections.

''The government continues to handle this situation in a shoddy manner,'' said Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, head of the Hospital Doctors' Association. ''How can four army doctors replace 100 who are normally on duty at Parirenyatwa, for instance?'' Parirenyatwa hospital is Zimbabwe's largest public health facility, and is named after the health minister's late father.

The hospital crisis has added to the woes of ordinary people grappling with an economic meltdown and regular shortages of food and fuel.

The government is increasingly relying on the military, which has also been roped in to boost agricultural production on previously under-utilised farms acquired by the state under the controversial land reform programme.

Several public enterprises, including the state railway company and the grain procurement agency, are now headed by former military officers.

Yesterday, the minister said the government had worked out an ''attractive package'' of salaries, transport and accommodation for all health workers, but declined to give details.

''As long as what they intend to offer us remains a secret, our position does not change,'' Nyamutukwa said. ''In any case, we suspect they are not revealing the package because they know we will not accept it.'' Reuters MS MIR RN1618