BULAWAYO, 16 May 2007 (IRIN) - The government has told striking doctors, who embarked on industrial action on Monday to demand a review of their daily wage of less than US$1, that it is broke.

"Government has no money, but we understand the doctors' grievances. We, however, cannot promise anything positive for now, and our appeal to their striking personnel is that they should return to work for the public's sake," Zimbabwe's deputy health minister, Edwin Muguti, told the striking doctors.

"That is our most passionate appeal at this point in time. We have seen how detrimental previous job actions have been to the health sector delivery and the public at large, and really we don't want a repeat of that," he told IRIN on Wednesday.

Medical practitioners at four of Zimbabwe's biggest state hospitals took off their surgical gloves on Monday, demanding a salary hike and an improvement in their working conditions, which they described as "pathetic and inhuman".

The deputy minister's plea for them to continue working for less than $1 a day has fallen on deaf ears. Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, spokesperson for the Hospital Doctors Association (HDA), said doctors would not resume work until their grievances were satisfied.

"We offer a very important service but it is sad we are not treated as such by government," he said. "Doctors employed by state institutions earn less than US$1 a day, which is very ridiculous. We need a wage review that will put us above the poverty datum line, otherwise it's pointless going to work now."

Medical practitioners earn about Z$500,000 a month (US$16), although the consumer council of Zimbabwe said in its March report that a family of six required Z$686,115 to meet its basic needs each month. Zimbabwe's latest official inflation rate is 2,200 percent, the highest in the world.

In previous strike action, which lasted from January to March this year, demands were for a monthly salary of Z$5 million (US$166 at the parallel market rate of Z3$30,000 to US$1), but this time the HDA just wants to sit government down and negotiate.

At the United Bulawayo Hospital and Mpilo Hospital in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, patients requiring medical attention by doctors were being turned away, while some nurses were providing a few with treatment.

"This is sad, really sad. Government has to address the issue of medical personnel's salaries once and for all," Nobuhle Dube, who was seeking medical assistance at Mpilo Hospital for a suspected liver infection, told IRIN.

"Now, in pain as I am, I have to go back home ... because there is no doctor to administer treatment to me and many others here," he said. "What makes it even worse is that I cannot afford treatment at private hospitals, otherwise I would just go there."

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