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FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: DW]
The Medical Association of Mozambique has filed a lawsuit against the Ministries of Economy and Finance and of Health for failing to deliver the overtime and risk subsidy payments promised even before the first cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in Mozambique.
Doctors also reiterate pre-existing problems such as poor working conditions and the reduction of the health sector budget by almost 6% over the years 2018-2019.
“This situation is worrying. This is an underdeveloped country, and the normal [thing to do] would be to increase the [health] budget to meet the state’s obligations. There are international agreements to which the country is bound, including spending at least 15% of the budget on health. Unfortunately, we are currently at less than 10%,” secretary general of the Medical Association Napoleão Viola told television channel STV, DW Africa’s partner.
Lack of conditions
Napoleão Viola says that the Mozambican health system has, over the last 15 years, deteriorated into a very precarious state. “There are a number of diagnostic devices that should be available. They are often not, and, when they are, they are often out of order,” he maintains.
Journalist and political analyst Fernando Lima adds that doctors cannot work in the current conditions while simultaneously knowing that the country has received US$300 million from donors to contain the progress of the new coronavirus.
“They do not see this reflected in their daily activity. So there are two discrete phenomena: there is a situation that corresponds to Covid-19, but which somehow reflects more global discomfort.”
Where do the donations go?
Fernando Lima has no doubt that the problems in the health system stem from the government’s mismanagement of donations.
“There can be no social justice with donations from the benefactors of Mozambique. In fact, with the 2016 [hidden debts] situation, we know that, at a bilateral level, cooperation has not ended. On the contrary, much of the money that previously went straight into to the State Budget was meant for projects of a bilateral nature,” Lima says.
In 2013, Mozambique’s doctors went on strike across the country in support of demands for a salary increase. The Medical Association of Mozambique at the time reported that some doctors who had joined the protest were penalised and subjected to disciplinary proceedings, or were transferred or compulsorily retired.
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