Hosia Mviringi
The government has moved in to protect the general interests of patients in public hospitals and clinics by gazetting the Health Service Amendment Bill of 2021.
Most notable under the new amendment is the moving of the Health Service profession from the Public Service as it is now classified under essential services in the mould Is the Security Forces, that is soldiers and the police.
The Health Service Amendment Act of 2021 is envisaged to replace the Health Service Board with the Health Service Commission, which among other things will be mandated to appoint qualified and competent persons to hold posts in the Health Service sector.
It will be the role of the Commission to create a grading system for Health Service personnel for purposes of remuneration and promotion to higher posts, hold disciplinary powers, investigate grievances and offer remedies, to ensure effective and efficient performance within the sector and to fix salaries and allowances in consultation with the President and the Minister of Finance at any given time as would be necessary.
The envisaged legislation will be a game changer and a reason to smile for chronic and regular patients as critical care staff will not be allowed to engage in industrial action for any reason.
Under the all new Section 16A of the new Health Service Amendment Act of 2021, critical care staff will not be allowed to strike or partake in any industrial action, be it legal or otherwise.
Section 16A is a whole new section altogether which is being added to the Principal Act to deal specifically with the issue of negligence of duty by officers and staffers in pursuit of narrow selfish monetary agendas at the expense of saving lives as a primary goal.
This clause has been motivated by a series of events that have characterised the Health Service Labour market when Junior Doctors and Nurses connived to form pseudo Unions which would later on lead staffers into unauthorised industrial action which at one point lasted for three months while patients suffer and die.
One sad story that quickly runs into mind is that of a certain prepaid Doctor, one Peter Magombeyi of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA), who, after inciting other Doctors to engage in an unlawful industrial action, went on to stage-manage an abduction, with object Zimbabwe in a bad light in exchange for United States Visa. Such unfortunate incidences will be sufficiently dealt with under the proposed clause.
On June 20, 2020, Doctors and Nurs,es embarked on a prolonged strike for three months, only to return to work on September 20, 2020 in disregard of the dangers and dire needs present then as the country tried to navigate through the burden of rising Covid-19 cases.
When healthcare workers choose to engage in the profession, it is expected that at all times they will abide by the moral and professional ethics of the calling whose major focus is to save lives.
“I solemnly pledge myself to the service of humanity and will endeavour to practise my profession with conscience and with dignity. I will maintain, by all the means in my power, the honour and noble tradition of my profession. The total health of my patients will be my first consideration”.
This is what has become known as the Nightingale’s Pledge. It is a personal commitment that every nurse makes upon being attested as a nurse. This pledge makes it an obligation and not a choice to save a life before thinking of personal comfort or financial benefit.
If one has to abandon a critical care station in the middle of a pandemic then that becomes careless at least and criminal at most.
With this Act it is hoped that a sense of responsibility and respect for human life will prevail amongst those entrusted with the sacred role.
Any member of the Health Service Commission who leads in or incites a job action shall be liable to a fine not exceeding Level 10 or imprisonment for a period of three years of to both fine and sentence.
One sad story that quickly runs into mind is that of a certain prepaid Doctor, Magombeyi of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, who, after inciting other Doctors to engage in an unlawful industrial action, went on to stage manage an abduction, with the aim to project Zimbabwe in bad light in exchange for United States Visa. Such unfortunate incidences will be sufficiently dealt with under the proposed law.
Members of the Health Service, upon joining, the undertake a commitment, which is solidified through a sacred vow to protect lives as a matter of obligation.
In some circumstances personal sacrifice is invoked in order to save humanity.
Healthcare delivery is like working in a warzone. It’s the typical frontline situation where no soldier is expected to retreat or turn their back.
It still remains strange to imagine that Doctors and Nurses had to turn their backs at dying and desperate patients in the middle of a pandemic. Callous and inhuman it was.
However, the beauty of the new Amended Health Service Act is that it streamlines reporting structures such that employee grievances will no longer take the longer route through the Public Service Commission which houses all government employees.
As a Commission established by an Act of Parliament, the Health Service Commission will have the autonomy and flexibility to tailor-make specific solutions to grievances in the sector without cumbersome negotiations with labour unions.
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