When the doctors leave

Government bureaucracies have often been blamed for the shortage and bad management of medical personnel and resources. The point was driven home by recent events in the Solomon Islands.

By Johnson Honimae

There was panic throughout Solomon Islands health and medical services in August when the country’s 26 national doctors employed by the government decided to resign. The panic was especi ally true for the country’s National Referral Hospital, more commonly known as the Central Hospital or No.

Nine.

Services at Central Hospital were reduced drastically with only two ex patriate doctors having to shoulder the burden of the 500-bed hospital. The number of operations were reduced from 12 to two or three daily. X-rays were not possible as there were no doctors to authorise them. Emergency cases had to be handled by nurses.

But two weeks after resigning, six of the national doctors decided to withdraw their resignations. The government readily accepted them back. But this was not the same case when the rest of the doctors decided to withdraw their resig nations. The chairman of the Public Service Commission, Dennis Lulei, said, “each of the doctors must withdraw his resignation individually and even then re-employment will be reconsidered on the merit of each doctors”.

The 16 doctors refused to do so and the president of SIMA, Dr Ronald Ziru, explained, “We withdrew our resig nation as a sign of goodwill to the government that we were willing to negotiate.” The doctors also did not want to continue to see health and medical services adversely affected. But the government denied that SIMA had ever given them any demands to nego tiate over.

Then came the bombshell. The gov ernment refused to continue to recognise SIMA as representing the doctors, this virtually cut off any negotiations between the government and SIMA. It was a tactic by the government to destroy the solidarity of the doctors.

The government continues to insist the 16 doctors withdraw their resignations individually. Both sides are not giving in without a fight. SIMA maintains its members resigned en masse and will withdraw their resignations en masse.

The doctors’ mass resignation is over dissatisfaction over their terms and conditions.

SIMA also complained that a log of claims which includes increases in trans port, housing and special duty allow ances was taking too long to be heard.

The claims went before the country’s Trade Dispute Panel but because of the absence of a chairman a date for hearing was slow in coming.

The doctors also claimed a new scheme of service has been prepared by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services without input from SIMA. The scheme of service has now been referred back to the ministry and SIMA is expected to contribute to it despite not being recognised by the government.

The doctors are suggesting their start ing salaries should be at Level 10 in the public service scale. But the government insists the starting salary of a new graduate doctor be at L8/9, up from the present L7.

Lawyers, engineers start at L7 in the public service, arts and science graduates start at L6. Doctors are not paid overtime but a special duties’ allowance for the odd hours they have to work.

They want this allowance to be doubled.

The doctors also want more training.

They feel much of the money for training has been directed to community health services. But as both SIMA and the government reach a stalemate, one thing is sure — newly graduated doctors from the Fiji School of Medicine and the University of Papua New Guinea will think twice before coming back to serve their own people.

More doctors will also enter private practice which only the richer urban dwellers can afford.

Meanwhile, a report by Dr John

Rodgers, supervising medical superin

tendent at Central Hospital, called on the government to re-instate all doctors who had withdrawn their resignations, to give full pay to them from August 3, and to review all areas of concern expressed by the doctors. “How much longer are we prepared to continue sacrificing the lives of our children, men and women,”he asked.

Rodgers said the longer the impasse

between the government and the doctors continued, “the longer we are putting the lives of our people on the balance, the longer the innocent patients are held hostage whilst both sides get bogged down with anomalies in policies and

procedures. □