Harare Residents’ Trust (HRT) has urged the Harare City Council to give nurses the outstanding stands which the local authority was supposed to give them for outstanding salaries.
The Trust says that patients are being sacrificed as the standoff between city fathers and nurses continue. The HRT said:
The Harare City Council City Health Department should urgently resolve their dispute with striking nurses before the situation spills out of control. Dr Prosper Chonzi, the City Health Director told ZBC News that they are making an effort to keep five major clinics open at night in order to attend to expecting mothers and other emergencies. As the HRT we sympathise with the patients and hope that the nurses and the City Health Department will find a lasting solution.
The outstanding stands that were supposed to be issued to each nurse for outstanding salaries should be made available without undue delays. Pregnant mothers and the terminally ill are the most affected. The expecting mothers have already paid their maternity fees, but have struggled to get the paid-for services. A person cannot pay her or his money and just be taken for granted.
The HRT added that the impasse between the city fathers and nurses was worsening the already dire situation as it comes when doctors in public hospitals are on industrial action since the 3rd of September this year with the government retrenching some of them.
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