Mozambique: Government struggling to pay healthcare overtime

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Mozambique: Government struggling to pay healthcare overtime

7:27 CAT | 30 May 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

The Mozambican government acknowledged on Thursday that it was making a “great effort” to pay overtime and other outstanding allowances to health professionals, once again calling for dialogue to halt strikes in the sector.

“The government is making a great effort to resolve the issue of overtime and other allowances in the health sector (…). There is an open, frank, honest and fair dialogue with our colleagues and we are responding to most of the problems faced by health professionals within the socio-economic context of our country,” the health minister told parliament, where he was responding to persistent questions from MPs.

In parliament, Ussene Isse said that a strike in the health sector is a “danger” that causes deaths and “suffering to the population,” calling for collective efforts to end the stoppages.

“We, as a government, are aware of the fatality of this problem in health, we are in dialogue with our colleagues (…). We will not be able to resolve it as we would like, not because of a lack of will, but when resources are scarce, we have to do things in a prioritised and gradual manner, and that is what is happening,” the minister said.

Mozambique’s government had previously warned on 27 May that no one would gain from the strike and called for dialogue with doctors at Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), the country’s largest, who were threatening to stop working overtime from 1 June.

“We have repeatedly said that the only alternative we have is to continue talking. There is no magic measure to stop any intention to demonstrate, whether for a right or any other reason, especially in a context of limited resources, when we know that the solution necessarily involves making those resources available,” said the spokesman for the Council of Ministers, Inocêncio Impissa.

At issue is the non-payment of overtime to the profession, which has been going on for 13 months, according to the doctors, who have warned, in a letter to the director of the HCM, that they will stop working overtime from 1 June, in addition to public holidays and weekends, until the debt is settled.

The last strike by doctors at that hospital took place in May and July last year, culminating at the time in agreements between the doctors and the hospital management, which, however, were not fulfilled, according to the doctors in the letter threatening a new strike.

“After numerous meetings, what we see is that payments are not being made as previously agreed, with debts still outstanding from 2024 [January to April and August to December] and the five months of 2025,” the doctors explain in the letter released.

For three years, the health sector has been facing strikes and walkouts called by the Association of United and Solidarity Health Professionals of Mozambique (APSUSM), which covers around 65,000 health professionals from different departments.

The Mozambican National Health System has also faced several moments of pressure in the last two years, caused by strikes by employees called by the Mozambican Medical Association (AMM), which have demanded improvements in working conditions.

The country has a total of 1,778 health facilities, including 107 health posts, three specialised hospitals, four central hospitals, seven general hospitals, seven provincial hospitals, 22 rural hospitals, and 47 district hospitals, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health.

Source: Lusa