Doctors under the aegis of the National Union of Angolan Doctors (Sinmea) are on a warning strike to demand better working conditions, and allowances among other demands from the government.
The action, which enters its third day on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, will last for five days.
According to Sinmea, only “minimal services will be provided in the emergency and intensive care units, but infirmary activities and external consultations will be suspended countrywide” during the strike period.
The Ministry of Health and Sinmea met last week, but no positive resolution was reached.
Adriano Manuel, Sinmea’s head, has also been banned from his job for a year and six months after he publicly denounced the deaths of around 20 children at the Pediatric Hospital of Luanda in two days.
Last week, 40 Russian doctors went on strike in Benguela province due to arrears in salary payments of about $20 million over a period of 25 months.
The Zdravexport Group Company, which operates in the country under contract with the Ministry of Health, pays Russian doctors.
There has been no official communication from the government regarding the strike.
Angola has had an extremely poor public healthcare system attributed to the 27-year war which ended in 2002.
The majority of the 32 million people in the country do not have access to health care, while the middle and higher classes receive their healthcare services from private providers.
According to the Usaid, Angola continues to struggle to improve child and maternal mortality rates, which are among the highest in the world: almost 1 in 5 children dies before the fifth birthday, and the maternal mortality rate is 610 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Malaria is widespread and the number one killer in the southern African country.