Around 50,000 Mozambican health professionals joined the strike that began today – News – SAPO.pt

“Being the first day of the strike, we have almost 70% participation (…) there are around 50 thousand professionals who joined”, said Anselmo Muchave.

According to the official, the strike is having “very good participation” and it is expected that by Wednesday all 65,000 health professionals who are members of APSUSM will join the strike, while talks with the Government take place, which started this morning .

“Negotiations continue, but we are firmly convinced that we will only return with everything resolved and organized, especially with regard to the difficulties faced by patients. [enfrentam]”, said Muchave.

The strike by employees and health agents will be held for 30 extendable days, according to APSUSM, with employees demanding better working conditions, and the representative said that they will not give in to new proposals from the Government to suspend it.

“Striking is not a luxury, demands are not a favor. We are demanding care for the people themselves, but the people also have to stop and analyze what is happening”, said the president of APSUSM.

The Ministry of Health (Misau) of Mozambique said today that there were “no reasons” for the resumption of this strike, and assured that it would “ensure the continuity of the provision of health services to the population”.

“Misau understands that there are no reasons to call the aforementioned strike and reiterates that dialogue must continue to be the way to resolve challenges in the Health sector”, reads a statement regarding the start of this strike.

The return to strike had been scheduled for March 28, but it was suspended a day earlier following talks with the Mozambican Government, which culminated in the fulfillment of some points of the demand, such as the qualification of health professionals, monitoring visits to hospital units and the resolution of irregularities in the payment of subsidies, APSUSM said at the time.

Almost 30 days after the suspension of the strike, Mozambican health professionals once again complained about government non-compliance and the failure to carry out visits to monitor compliance with agreements between the parties, saying that hospitals “are worse than at the beginning of the dialogue”.

“When we announced the strike, we said out loud that our health units are seriously suffering from the lack of medical-surgical and hospital supplies and medicines. The Government made a commitment to reverse this situation, but unfortunately our health units are worse off than they were in the past. beginning of our dialogue”, reads the association’s document, about this new strike.

At issue was a negotiation that was ongoing in 2023 between the Mozambican Government and APSUSM, an association that covers around 65,000 professionals and that went on strike between August and November 2023, for better working conditions in the public sector.

They complain about the lack of medicines, beds and ambulances in hospitals, as well as non-disposable personal protective equipment, which is “forcing employees to buy out of their own pockets”.

LN (PVJ) // ANP

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