Nampula doctors dissatisfied by benefit cuts

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Nampula doctors dissatisfied by benefit cuts

7:42 CAT | 05 Apr 2017

Mhoje_hospitalcentraldenampula_photo_jpg

File photo / Nampula Central Hospital

Doctors working in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula say they are dissatisfied and demotivated because of cuts in the benefits to which they are entitled and the non-payment, since last June, of overtime.

Information obtained by AIM indicates that the matter is of serious concern, and known to the authorities. But the local branch of the Mozambican Order of Doctors strikes an optimistic pose and believes that a solution favourable to the doctors will be found.

The Nampula Provincial Director of Economy and Finance, Maria Fonseca, confirmed the doctors complaints. She told AIM that the money in question refers to the June-December 2016 period.

“We are working to solve the matter of paying the doctors their overtime pay”, she said. “We are aware that they have a right to this money and it cannot be denied, so we are making every effort to overcome the difficulties”. She added that her office is working with the National Directorate of Public Accounts to find the money.

In total, the overtime pay which the Nampula provincial government owes the doctors amounts to seven million meticais (about 107,000 US dollars).

Fonseca explained the failure to pay this sum, and the cuts in various other benefits, by the fact that the country is sunk in an “unprecedented” financial crisis. “Due to the situation the country is going through, as from October last year, we were only able to pay wages, and had no money for anything else”, she said. “Overtime and other benefits were relegated to a secondary position”.

The health service in Nampula employs 284 doctors, including 67 foreigners.

Source: AIM