Health workers in Mozambique suspend minimal services and continue strike

Health workers in Mozambique announced this Monday the continuation of the strike and the suspension of minimal services in hospitals, given the lack of consensus with the government, which they accuse of “increasing harassment and threats.”

“We have already mentioned that if attempts to interfere with the exercise of the right to strike continue, we will take decisive action. In this sense, we have suspended minimum services throughout the country and the strike continues,” said the Association’s coordinator in Nampula. The Association of Health Professionals and Solidarity of Mozambique (APSUSM) at a press conference in the city of Nampula regarding the strike that began on April 29.

López Juma Remane clarified that during negotiations in the second week of the strike, health workers continued to demand, among other things, the lack of medical supplies in health facilities, final frameworks, overtime and shift allowances.

“We would like the government to reach out and suggest that the framework that professionals with a specific healthcare regime have is temporary, and those with a general regime should also have a 10% risk premium. We want these frameworks to be definitive for everyone. “, He said.

The spokesman added that health professionals are “following with concern” the announcement by Health Minister Armindo Thiago, who said last week that he had already guaranteed most of the requirements of the APSUSM demand list, including the inclusion of more than 60 thousand professionals.

“The government’s delusions are deceiving us again (…). The reality is that we are on strike all over the country, medical institutions are operating with only minimal services,” he said.

Medical professionals accuse the government of continuing to place “students unqualified to serve the public” in medical institutions, ensuring that this happens without the supervision of an experienced professional.

“We would like to ask the Minister of Health who is responsible for these students, who will be held responsible for any damage caused while caring for these untrained students,” asked Juma Remane.

APSUSM also accuses the government of increasing pressure on health workers to end their strike and return to their jobs.

“The persecution has intensified. Professionals are receiving calls from HR heads threatening to withhold their salaries and initiate legal action if they refuse to go to work,” Remane said.

More than 50,000 health workers have joined the strike, which began on April 29, as previously announced by the Association of United and Solidarity Health Workers of Mozambique.

The resumption of the strike was planned for March 28, but it was suspended a day earlier after negotiations with the Mozambican government culminated in the implementation of some demands, such as the qualification of health workers, monitoring visits to hospital departments and the resolution of irregularities in the payment of subsidies, it said at the time. APSUSM.

Nearly 30 days after the strike was suspended, Mozambican health workers once again complained of non-compliance with government demands and a failure to conduct monitoring visits to agreements between the parties, saying hospitals were “worse than when the dialogue began.” “.

Among other things, APSUSM requires the government to provide hospitals with medicines that patients in some cases have to purchase, purchase hospital beds, address the problem of “food shortages,” as well as medical equipment for emergency ambulances. single-use materials and personal protective equipment, shortages of which “force employees to purchase them out of their own pockets.”