By Nelson Banya HARARE, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Doctors at Zimbabwe's state hospitals have gone on strike for better pay to combat galloping inflation, marooning sick patients in packed waiting rooms in the latest sign of the country's economic meltdown. Economic analysts warned that workers in other sectors could also boycott work as they grapple with a deep recession which critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's policies. On Thursday junior doctors at the country's major state hospitals intensified industrial action that started at the end of last month and has now paralysed operations at major health institutions. Only nurses were working with the help of senior doctors, who work on a part time basis because they also run private surgeries. Staff at private medical clinics, where fees are higher, did not join the strike. At Harare's Parirenyatwa Hospital -- Zimbabwe's largest -- only part-time doctors were working and attending to emergencies, according to an official notice at the hospital. Several patients lay on stretchers in a packed waiting room with no help in sight. Some said they had been waiting for treatment for several days for everything from injuries to medical reviews in hospitals already hit by frequent shortages of medicines. "The strike continues. If they (the government) give people the 400 percent salary increment we hear they have planned for this January, then it will intensify," Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, head of the Hospital Doctors Association, told Reuters. "The minister (of health) remains arrogant and refuses to talk to us. We served him with a letter five weeks ago and he has not responded." Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said he was not aware of the strike, which has affected operations at public health facilities used by the majority of the population. But Mugabe's government has singled out health workers among government employees barred from boycotting work because they offer essential services. This is the second strike in seven months by the doctors who are demanding, among other things, salaries of up to 5 million Zimbabwe dollars ($20,000) from the current $88,000 ($352) as well as increased motor vehicle allowances. The Zimbabwe dollar is officially pegged at 250 to the U.S. dollar but trades at up to 3,000 on a thriving black market. "They keep telling us that the doctors are on strike so there isn't much they can do. I have had to endure this unbearable pain since yesterday," said Simba Bvunzawabaya, a farm labourer who broke his arm in a tractor accident. Doctors have staged a series of strikes in recent years to push for wages they say have been eroded by rampant inflation and thousands of doctors and nurses have sought better-paid jobs in South Africa, Britain and Australia.
