Doctors at the Nampula Central Hospital (HCN) are warning that from July 1st they will stop working after 3:30pm, as they have not been paid for their work on shifts, holidays and weekends for a year and a half.

At issue are old problems, which the government already knows about. The doctors are complaining about the lack of payment for overtime work in 2024 and this year so far.

"We've never faced these problems before (...) but from 2023, 2024 and this one (we're having this problem). We don't know what's behind it," said Pascoal Víctor, an HCN doctor quoted in the "O" publication.

Doctors say that payment for overtime work is made with the authorization of the hospital's structures and is thus made possible.

"It means that if there is a need for authorization, there is a commitment that this will also be remunerated," explained the doctor, quoted in the publication.

The doctors say they have decided that they will no longer be available to work shifts, weekends and holidays from the first day of July, precisely because the commitment they had made was not being honored.

However, they warn that "this is not a strike. What we're not going to do is work that we're not paid for. Now, for the work that we are paid for, in the normal hours of 07:30 to 15:30. All departments will have doctors and professionals working. What won't be done is overtime work," explains Vanilton Acuna, Resident Doctor in Surgery.

These are general practitioners, doctors who are specializing.

Given that they are doctors and their job is to save lives, Acuna recognizes that it was a difficult decision to make, but he blamed the hospital's management for how activities will be carried out in these sectors. "We hope that the management has an answer for this," he said.

Until now, the matter has been brought to the attention of the management of the Central Hospital in Nampula, which is not making any statements to the press.

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