By Daily Revelation Reporter
Doctors are entitled to be employed by the government, says chairperson of the 800 unemployed doctors Dr Wallace Ndumba.
And Resident Doctors Association of Zambia president Dr Brian Sampa says if the government will fail to employ all the doctors, it will be as good as not employing any of them.
Reacting to ministry of Health permanent secretary (Administration) Dr George Magwende’s statement to Daily Revelation telling doctors not to be self-centered and that they should not have a sense of entitlement, Dr Ndumba said he did not understand why Dr Magwende said what he said, saying he was supposed to be aware that doctors could not be employed anywhere else apart from the government once they completed their studies.
He said Dr Magwende could not compare doctors with the other professionals in the health sector as those had the liberty to work wherever they wanted to upon completion of schooling.
“But for us where the government does not employ you following completion of your studies, you are stuck or you are stranded like us. Like some of us already have been stranded for over two years now together with my colleagues. So doesn’t it tell you to say this is an entitlement? Unless they tell us to say we have a choice but that is not the case,” Dr Ndumba said, adding that going forward regulations must be changed to allow doctors to practice wherever they wanted on completion of their studies.
He said the doctors did not have any confidence in any word proceeding from those in government.
“This is what I am saying at this point we don’t have any confidence from any statement that they are making at this moment, because they have already made a number of statements. And if you go through all those statements you find that they are not consistent,” Dr Ndumba said. “They are ever changing and there is no time line so that’s why people they lost confidence. We are unable to believe in whatever they say at this point, because their form of communication is quite cumbersome . It is not consistent.”
He said the promises started last year.
“People have been waiting for over two years now, just been getting assurances and promises. They assured us that the year 2021 is not going to end, all the unemployed doctors are going to be employed and people waited, some of us were actually trying to reason with them to say why can’t they just say that we are going to be employed next year in 2022 instead of us getting another round of false hopes,” Dr Ndumba said. “They insisted to say you guys are getting employed before 2021. We said fine, then towards the end of 2021 the story changed that you guys are going to be employed next year. And if you remember there was another protest following that change of the story. We were then assured to say come January 2022 all of you are going to be employed, we said okay fine. January came there was nothing that was going on. It ended and this is now February it’s about to end. And up to now we don’t have anything tangible or clear.
Dr Ndumba said despite the doctors having sent through a letter to minister Sylvia Masebo she has been too busy to meet them.
And Dr Sampa said despite having a lot of respect for Dr Magwende, he understood that he was simply doing his job over what he said.
“Yes it may seem like doctors are being selfish. Now let me clarify here, doctors are not being selfish. What is here is that we have got 11,200 people who are supposed to be employed and the only thing we are asking for is 800 from 11,200. What is selfish about it? We are not saying let us get the entire number. If you remove 800 you are remaining with 10,400,” Dr Sampa said. “We also used another mathematics it’s to say from 11,200 we employ 800 of each of the of the 14 professionals, we are going to get 11,200 divided by 14, it will still give you 18. So it’s just a fair number.”
He said the doctors concern was about serving the vulnerable people, saying needs differed between those of doctors and other health professionals, as in most places people did not even have access to doctoral services.
“Why should we not employ all the doctors when there is that need? Is it just about the number 11,200 or it’s about employing anyone? Our members have said that if they are not employing everyone then they are employing no one,” said Dr Sampa. “They want everybody to be employed because it is already a drop in the ocean. So if they don’t employ everyone it’s like they just don’t want to employ. They should look at the need. Right now we are supposed to be talking about employing more and looking for more doctors and not debating on the doctors.”
