Today we carry a story where doctors in Ndola have resolved to go on a 14-day sit-in protest.
According to the letter availed to the Times of Zambia, the medical practitioners are demanding among other things  the settlement of outstanding salary arrears and payment of their settling-in allowances.
While the doctors’ frustrations are understandable, we still feel that the route  they have resolved to take is not the best at the moment.
We say so because just early this week the Resident Doctors Association of Zambia (RDAZ) national executive advised its University Teaching Hospital  (UTH) branch members who had similar grievances to find an amicable way of dealing with the issue by dialoguing with the Government.
RDAZ national president, Francis Mupeta urged members to adhere to the national executive’s advice on dialogue and was optimistic that the Government would respond positively.
We also share Dr Mupeta’s sentiments because since it ascended to power in 2011, the Patriotic Front has shown that it has the interest of workers at heart.
This can be evidenced by the decision to increase salaries of all public workers when it took office. Doctors were also beneficiaries of this move by the Government and there is no denying that this has stemmed the brain drain which had become commonplace before the PF came to power.
We wish to therefore, urge our sisters and brothers in this noble profession to give dialogue a chance because one shudders to imagine what will happen in our hospitals should the doctors go ahead with the threat to withdraw labour.
As things stand now the situation is not very good at Ndola Central Hospital (NCH) and other public health institutions, that is why Government has embarked on a drive to recruit more medical personnel to address this problem.
We would also like to urge the Government to show a sense of urgency in dealing with this problem before it gets out of hand.
Our worry is that if it is not addressed immediately, it will spread to other health institutions which is not in the best interest of the country.
In concluding, we once again wish to plead with the doctors to understand that theirs is a noble profession whose main objective is to save lives and if they go ahead with the threat to withdraw labour many innocent lives might  be lost.