Maputo, 13 Aug (AIM) – The Mozambican Medical Association (AMM) has threatened to expel any AMM member who does not join the strike it has decreed in the public health service.
The strike is now in its second month, and clearly it is not having the impact the AMM had hoped for, otherwise it would not have resorted to threats against members who do not want to take strike action.
If the AMM implements its threat, it lays itself open to legal action. While the strike is legal, the AMM does not have the power to oblige any doctor to take part in it.
Meanwhile, the professional body representing the medical profession, the Order of Doctors has announced the creation of an independent commission tasked with trying to bring the government and the striking doctors closer together.
While the AMM acts like a trade union, and doctors join it on a voluntary basis, the Order is more like a professional guild, and membership is compulsory for anyone practicing medicine in Mozambique.
In a statement issued on Friday, the Order said it is concerned at the current crisis in the relations between the government and the doctors, and so it had decided to intervene by setting up an independent and impartial commission.
The commission consists mainly of religious and academic figures, including retired Anglican bishop Dinis Sengulane, Methodist bishop Dinis Matsolo, the former vice-chancellor of Maputo’s Eduardo Mondlane University, Brazao Mazula, the vice-chancellor of the Pedagogic University, Jorge Ferrao, and a coordinator of the NGO, the Citizens’ Observatory for Health, Angelina Magibire.
The order says the Commission must try to re-establish trust between the government and the doctors. It should “understand the sensitivity of the parties, and the aspects of the dispute, and support the parties in defining the west format for solving their differences”.
(AIM)
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