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Some of Mozambique’s most prominent doctors, including three former ministers of health, have urged President Armando Guebuza to take a personal role in ending the doctors’ strike declared by the Mozambican Medical Association (AMM) which is now in its 20th day.
The first signature on the letter to Guebuza, published on the AMM’s Facebook page, is that of Pascoal Mocumbi, a founder member of the ruling Frelimo Party, and who held in succession the posts of Health Minister, Foreign Minister and Prime Minister. He remains a member of the Frelimo Central Committee.
The two other former health ministers who signed are Helder Martins and Fernando Vaz. 81 other doctors added their names to their letter, many of them well-known specialists in various fields of medicine in the national health service, and including several founders of the National Health Service.
The letter stresses that the health service is one of the most important gains resulting from Mozambican independence and that the right to health care is enshrined in the Mozambican constitution. Those who work in the health service – doctors, nurses, and auxiliary and administrative staff – are the backbone of the system, but Mocumbi and the other signatories stress that “the performance of these professionals in the battle against illness, which is an inseparable component of the fight against poverty, requires decent working and living conditions”.
Over the years, the letter adds, those conditions for health workers “have deteriorated sharply, with shortages of basic medicines and equipment in the health units, very poor housing conditions, particularly for young doctors and postgraduates, and miserable wages”.
Furthermore, the health budget, the letter accuses “has, over the past five to seven years, shrunk by about 50 per cent, while the budget for some other sectors, of much less social relevance, has increased ten times, or by 1,000 per cent! This shows the level of priority that the government grants to the health sector”.
Such concerns had long been raised, “but regrettably the response has systematically been silence”, the letter says. “As a result, health professionals feel demoralized, disrespected, revolted and suffering injustice because of the authorities’ lack of a response to their concerns which would recognize the value of their work and their efforts”.
This, the signatories state, is what has really led to the demands by the AMM in recent months and the current strike. While the letter says nothing about the specific demands of the AMM (notably for 100 per cent rise in doctors’ wages), it describes the strike as “very just and legitimate”, while admitting that it is “tough and painful” for citizens who depend on the health service.
The letter notes that the situation could deteriorate. So far, minimum services have been guaranteed in the health units hit by the strike – but this may not continue. “The resort to medical and nursing students, first aid workers and volunteers, is a dangerous and deceptive solution, which could lead to serious and irreparable mistakes”, the doctors warn. “It is not the simple use of a white uniform that grants the skills and competence to exercise the profession”.
The signatories are thus appealing to Guebuza to intervene in order “to establish an immediate, genuine and fruitful dialogue”.
“You spent your entire youth always fighting for just causes”, the letter tells Guebuza, “and so you will certainly recognize that what the doctors want is that they should be valued and that their working and living conditions should be improved. It is also a struggle for their own dignity and the dignity of people who deserve to be treated by qualified and motivated professionals. In the end, it is a struggle for the self-esteem of doctors and of other health professionals”.
The letter also attacks “situations of coercion, intimidation, dismissals and repression against health professionals involved in the strike”. Such measures are “unacceptable under the rule of law and only worsen the situation”.
In particular, the signatories condemned the detention of AMM President Jorge Arroz on 26 May. On that date, the police made a clumsy attempt to charge Arroz with sedition, but were thwarted by the speedy intervention of the Attorney-General’s Office, which ensured that Arroz was set free within four hours of his arrest.
The letter also denounced what it described as “a campaign of disinformation waged by the public sector media (which live on taxpayers’ money) and by some authorities who are trying to minimize the seriousness of the situation, hide existing problems and denigrate the just and legitimate demands of the doctors and other health professionals”.