strikes

news has been stirring amongts the interns and the PGs (post-graduates) that a strike is afoot. now, an explanation of the british system of medical education (the one adopted by zambians): medical school starts after high school and lasts for 7 years. after this you have a 2 year internship period, similar to the internship 3rd and 4th years have in north america. after this you have 4 or so years of post-graduate training, similar to the residency programs in north america. after this you become a 'senior registrar' and can then choose to specialize, in say, infectious diseases which will then take another 5 years. when you become staff you are called a consultant.


at any rate, the interns and PGs, which make up >50% of the hospital staff and engage in a bulk of the first-line work are seriously considering going on strike. this would be seriously debilitating to the hospital and any strike would surely lead to casulaties and deaths. there are some interesting moral issues surrounding strikes conducted by healthcare personnel...


now interestingly, they apparently go on strike about once a year in response to the chronic funding issues that are never adequately addressed, chief amongst which is housing. housing is supposed to be provided by the hospital they work at, but apparently there is a lack of funding this year and so many fear finding themselves homeless


this year, however, there is a new twist - one of the main reasons that the hospital is running out of money is CORRUPTION. a mid-level official at the ministry of health embezzled 10 billion kwacha (close to 2 million USD) and purchased several hummers, lexuses, and expensive girlfriends. this is only the tip of the iceberg, as an additional two dozen officals from the ministry are currently under invesgitation.

what is worse is that foreign donors have cut off funding until the country cleans up its act. the annual budget of the ministry of health is 1.8 trillion kwacha (slightly less than 400 million USD), of which 55% is made up of foreign aid. to lose this sum of money for any extended period of time will be disastrous for healthcare in zambia. hopefully everything is resolved quickly so that health is not too badly affected... again, there are interesting moral issues surrounding such a move

so, donor beware. let's see what happens