THE Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) has rejected contract proposals for junior doctors describing them as ‘ill-advised and poorly drafted’ by a board that has failed to protect their interests for years.

The Health Services Board (HSB) had drafted contracts spelling out conditions of service for junior doctors who have for years been on a collision course with their employer over unfavourable working conditions.

In a statement the ZHDA said it would not accept the proposal which was done without any consultation.

“After a week of nationwide consultations with its members, the ZHDA members unanimously rejected the ill-advised and poorly drafted contract for junior doctors proposed by the Health Services Board. The ZHDA membership noted that the contracts were drafted without any formal consultations with the ZHDA which sits in the Health Services Bipartite Negotiating Forum in which all health workers and government team of negotiators sit on a monthly basis to discuss contractual issues,” said Fortune Nyamande ZHDA President.

He said the ZHDA members countrywide had described the HSB as a board that has now totally become irrelevant, defunct, directionless, vindictive and infested by a bloated secretariat that does not only serve their selfish and petty minded interests which are clearly outside the pursuance of the national interest.

The ZHDA has since written to the Chief Secretary to the Office of the President and Cabinet, the Minister of Health, the Health Services Board Chairperson, the Minister now responsible for Public Service, the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe and the Parliamentary portfolio committee on health notifying them of the constitutional flaws and irregularities in the proposed contract and doctors unanimous rejection of the contract.

The doctors also asked government to audit HSB accounts to find out how it disbursed funds received from the Health Transition Fund.

“The recent move is a vindication to the long published position by the ZHDA that there indeed are some individuals in the board who are whole heartedly working to discredit government, its leadership and always create a collision between doctors and their employer,” he said.

The association also blasted HSB statement that described junior doctors on houseman ship as “medical students who were enjoying the benevolence of working without contracts”.

“This statement has been received by the ZHDA membership as a direct provocation, reckless and indecorous behavior never expected by a government employee who should be knowledgeable that junior doctors have graduated from various universities, deliver hundreds of babies daily, certify the deceased as government doctors and constitute 95 percent of doctors working in our government hospitals.

In January the ZHDA petitioned Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to immediately dissolve the HSB for failing to represent the interests of workers in the sector. The ZHDA also advised government to immediately investigate and dissolve the Health Services Board as it has become a breeding ground for quarrels with doctors, nurses and other health workers on seemingly trivial agendas. 

Nyamande has since challenged the HSB members to disclose their pay sheet showing bonuses they allegedly received last year. Tension between the board and the association escalated following the HSB’s decision to dock doctors’ salaries after they went on strike and late payment of their bonuses which led nurses in public hospitals to embark on a go-slow.

Nyamande in a statement said the government should set up an enquiry into the operations of the HSB saying it had to disclose how much money it had been receiving from the Health Transition Fund (HTF).

He said the HSB also had an obligation to explain the procedure they used to deduct doctors’ salaries after the latter embarked on an industrial action last year.

“We also reiterate our appeal to government to immediately set up an enquiry into the duties, conduct and actions of the HSB. Key questions which they should immediately answer include which legal framework they used to unilaterally and illegally deduct our salaries, how much does the HSB (members) earn and can they give us a detailed payroll on how much contributions they have been receiving from the HTF,” he said.