With Covid’s worst still to come, government signs MoU with healthcare workers – A Verdade

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With Covid’s worst still to come, government signs MoU with healthcare workers – A Verdade

5:22 CAT | 25 Jan 2021

Photo: @Verdade

With the worst of Covid-19’s second wave still to come, the government has finally approached health professionals and, this Monday (January 25th), reached an agreement which includes the allocation of personal protective material (PPE) to all hospitals in Maputo city, the exemption of older doctors, and healthcare workers and those with at-risk diseases, and guarantees priority vaccination, once it becomes available in Mozambique.

Almost a year after the outbreak of the pandemic in Mozambique and with the peak of the second wave still to come, the Ministry of Health finally met and reached a “consensus” with the National Association of Nurses of Mozambique, the Association of Doctors of Mozambique (AMM), the Mozambican Association of Technicians of Clinical Analysis Laboratories, the Order of Nurses and the Order of Doctors.

“The Ministry of Health confirmed the availability of Personal Protective Equipment to cover the country’s needs and committed to improving the distribution of this equipment to health units. The equipment used in the Covid-19 Hospitalisation Centres will also be distributed to the wards where Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, as is the case with Central Hospital of Maputo wards and other hospitals in Maputo,” chairman of the AMM, Dr Milton Tatia, announced.

Speaking after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the health professionals’ associations and the government, the chairman of the AMM told reporters that “the Ministry has confirmed the absolute priority in starting the vaccination process against Covid-19 in health professionals, as soon as the vaccine is available in Mozambique”.

The Government and health professionals today also agreed that “health professionals aged 55 years and over and those with diseases considered as putting them at risk will be exempt from clinical or laboratory activities. The need to optimise conditions for assistance and hospitalisation of health professionals with Covid-19 whose condition so justifies it was also agreed”.

“The parties recognise the need to reinforce staffing so as to improve the efficiency of Covid-19 inpatient centres. The Ministry of Health said that, for this purpose, calculations were being made and mechanisms for hiring health professionals, both national and foreigners, were being activated. In addition to hiring more health professionals, the Ministry will reallocate existing human resources in order to guarantee the continuity of essential health services,” the AMM president added.

Source: A Verdade