Doctors operating in Zimbabwe are sometimes so hungry, they collapse during critical procedures.
This is one of the claims made by a group of 250 doctors fired by the health department this month.
One of them, Dr Alfred Matanga, 26, stationed at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare, told the Sunday Times that life had become hell after the state doctors embarked on a protracted strike over wages.
"Doctors were collapsing during theatre because they were hungry. Going to work was becoming too expensive and, just like any other Zimbabwean, we were looking for means to survive," he said.
Like many who are now jobless, he is thinking of leaving the country.
"After being fired I now have mixed feelings. I would have liked to stay and continue to work but like everyone else I am thinking of leaving. If I have been this patient subsidising my own government, I can be patient enough to work through the process because at the moment any other country is better than Zimbabwe," he said.
LEAVING THE COUNTRY
The fired doctors were the leading lights in a crippling strike that lasted for more than 70 days. Those that remain at work are on a go-slow and in some cases on a total stay-away because they cannot afford to go to work, let alone feed their families.
Dr Munyaradzi Mtetwa, 25, who was fired from Harare Central Hospital, told the Sunday Times he was trying all avenues to leave the country, though it was an uphill battle.
"The whole process of leaving is just strenuous and expensive, but it would be better to work where you are appreciated," he said.
Doctors in Zimbabwe earn US$100 a month on average, including all benefits and overtime.
Doctors were collapsing during theatre because they were hungry
Financial constraints have proved a stumbling block to leaving.
"Just for registration to do internship into the medical field in the Sadc [Southern African Development Community] region, you will need about US$5,000, and in Zimbabwean terms that's a lot," Mtetwa said.
"As you go further to countries like the UK and Australia, registration and examination expenses keep rising and it could take up to a year before one is accepted."
To raise money for this process, Mtetwa has turned his hand to small-scale farming.
"As someone who trained to be a doctor, this is something I never thought I would do," he said.
Before the striking doctors were dismissed, the government employed 1,620 doctors at state medical facilities - a ratio of one doctor to 10,000 patients.
"We are expecting even more doctors to be fired because a lot of doctors can't afford to report for duty and that will be taken as defiance," said Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors' Association spokesperson Dr Tapiwa Mungofa.
"We don't think this move to fire doctors has been done with thought and common reasoning, since the Health Services Board has not indicated how they are going to resolve the crises without doctors."
FAST TRACKED TO THE UK
Fired doctor Matanga said there was general disdain and misunderstanding by politicians about what a doctor's role in society is.
"They don't understand the nature of our work. We work six days a week and when you are on call you work close to 30 hours at a time," he said.
Dr Zvikomborero Mungwenjedzi said it should not be a crime to ask for a living wage.
Some of those fired have already moved to private practices, while others have pinned their hopes on an announcement by the UK that it will fast-track visa applications for foreign doctors and nurses in a bid to fill 10,000 vacancies.
"Even if all of us go we won't fill up the opportunities in the UK. The future is bright for doctors but for the general public it's dull, all because of a rigid government," said one of the doctors.
Health minister Obadiah Moyo said a total of 355 doctors were called in for disciplinary hearings and the majority were fired. "A total of 322 disciplinary cases have so far been heard and the 286 doctors who were found guilty were discharged. Disciplinary hearings will end on November 22. There's no money in government coffers," he said.
In April, when the doctors went on strike for the first time this year, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga said that, in abandoning his or her patients, a striking doctor was no more than "a skilled technician or labourer whose knowledge fits him for an occupation but not a profession".
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