Author: clarency

Doctors and their employer have been urged to engage in an honest dialogue aimed at ending the current impasse which has halted operations in public hospitals and created chaos in the private sector which is being swamped by patients. The Community Working Group on Health (CWGH), which is mediating between the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) and the Health Services Board (HSB), said there was need to resolve the matter urgently. “We are saying to the government let us open the dialogue doors by setting aside the disciplinary hearings and…

Health watchdogs have called for thorough investigations into the recent death of a woman during labour at Parirenyatwa Hospital amid allegations that she was left unattended for too long. Sharon Munyonho’s body was found in a grisly state with the baby stuck between her legs. “There is need for thorough investigations. It is sad and painful that she died while giving birth unattended at Parirenyatwa Hospital, one of the country’s largest referral institutions, which is supposed to be the shining beacon of professionalism in the health sector,” said Itai Rusike,…

AS the country and the world continues to mourn the passing on of former president Robert Mugabe, players in the health sector have chosen to celebrate his life by sharing some of his successes and vision. Mugabe died on Friday at around 4am at Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore. He was 95. Mugabe was Zimbabwe’s first democratic leader after gaining independence from the colonial bondage of Britain in 1980 and he is credited with some of the policies which saw Zimbabwe scoring successes on many health fronts. Zimbabwe managed to eradicate…

GOVERNMENT has been urged to craft innovative and sustainable healthcare financing policies and protect the poor and vulnerable groups through implementing a comprehensive national health financial strategy. Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) executive director Itai Rusike said this in his 2020 CWGH national health strategy budget paper. Rusike noted that Zimbabwe’s health sector was grossly underfunded compared to neighbouring countries in the Sadc region to the extent that government in 2019 spent US$41 per capita (per person) on health, which is grossly inadequate. “Government spends a relatively small share…

THE Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) yesterday said the supplementary budget for the health sector, which Finance minister Mthuli Ncube announced on Thursday last week is still inadequate in the face of rising disease and mortality levels in the country. BY VENERANDA LANGA CWGH executive director Itai Rusike told NewsDay in an interview that despite Ncube’s strong expressions, during the budget presentation, placed on social priorities including health, the supplementary budget for health only had a nominal increase which did not match priorities in the sector. Zimbabwe’s per capita…

Government is expected to appoint a board of directors for the National Aids Council (NAC) within the next month, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo has said. The previous board was dissolved in March this year. Once a new one has been appointed, it will then appoint a substantive chief executive to replace the long serving Dr Tapuwa Magure who left in December last year. Responding to questions from stakeholders who felt the NAC board was taking long to be reconstituted, Dr Moyo said Government was following due…

STAKEHOLDERS have scaled up calls on the Health minister Obadiah Moyo and Health Services Board (HSB) to urgently reconstitute the National Aids Council (NAC) board and appoint a substantive chief executive officer (CEO) to ensure smooth running of the organisation which has been dogged by allegations of maladministration, abuse of office and corruption. The previous board was dissolved almost four months ago and at the time the Health minister in a letter said the board had been improperly appointed and that President Emmerson Mnangagwa had concurred to its dissolution. However,…

ZIMBABWE should draw serious lessons from other countries who have successfully implemented national health insurance schemes that cater comprehensively for every citizen to ensure the attainment of universal health coverage (UHC), stakeholders have said. High cost of medicines compounded by persistent industrial action by health workers has made it virtually impossible for ordinary citizens to access basic health care. The call came as most health insurance providers have indicated that they will, from July 1, hike their fees by between 40% and 80% to cushion their businesses against inflation. “In…