Maputo, 11 Mar (AIM) – The Association of United Mozambican Health Professionals (APSUSM) has threatened to resume its nationwide strike as of 31 March allegedly because the government left the health professionals behind during its programme for its first 100 days in office.
APSUSM had suspended its strike after negotiations with the government last year. However, since it claims that the government did not comply with the agreement reached, the Association decided to resume the strike.
According to Anselmo Muchave, APSUSM chairperson, who was speaking to reporters on Monday, in Maputo, the strike will be resumed if the government does not respond to the concerns demanded by the health workers.
“We would like the government to resolve all the health professionals’ demands by the end of March. We are going to stop our activities. We are the pioneers in demonstrations and we always have new strategies to make the functioning of the health facilities worse and worse”, he boasted.
He explained that if the government does not come up with a solution regarding the payment for overtime work “we will go on strike, we want compliance with our charter of demands.”
Muchave accuses the government of lacking interest in improving the working conditions of health professionals and providing decent health care to the population “even after the President made a commitment to reverse this situation, which is set to worsen.”
“Unfortunately, our health centres are getting worse and worse, with access to basic health care being poor and aggravated by the lack of medicines to treat the most common illnesses, forcing patients to buy from private pharmacies, which is difficult because many people lack money”, he claimed.
According to Muchave, health facilities lack essential equipment. “It’s been about two years since we said out loud that our health units are suffering from a lack of medical and surgical equipment, the laboratories are running out of reagents. There are no plates for printing X-rays”, he said.
He also claims that there are “health professionals infected as a result of handling serious pathologies without proper protection.
Muchave also expressed concern about the quality of food for patients, which “is still a disgrace, although it reaches 99 percent of them, unlike that of the health professionals, who spend 24 hours inside the health units without food.”
He declared that, unless the government meets its demands, APSUM members will go on strike as from 31 March.
(AIM)
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