Day: August 23, 2019

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 health spending in 2019 is a measly $41 per person after Ncube allocated only $755 million towards health in the 2019 Budget, which has also been increased by a small margin in the July supplementary budget.
“We would like to know whether the Ministry of Finance has any guide in its allocations of a level of per capita funding of health services that constitutes the ‘bottom line’ in terms of the rights or needs of citizens,” Rusike said.
“The supplementary budget allocation for the health sector is inadequate in the face of rising disease and mortality levels,” he said.
Rusike said there has been a massive increase in the cost of essential drugs in the country as well as a drop in the ability to purchase drugs by low income people resulting in barriers to access to healthcare due to the high costs.
“These trends are exacerbated by government failing to sufficiently look into the cost of health services. The state of the health services — near collapse — is directly related to government misplacing its priorities in not allocating adequate resources to the health sector,” he said.
The CWGH said government should start making health delivery a top priority if it is to save its health institutions from imminent collapse.
“We only hope that the Ministry of Health and Child Care will manage the additional funds allocated to them as efficiently and effectively as possible in order to maintain good health standards in the face of collapsing health services,” he said.
During his 2019 supplementary budget statement, Ncube said among some of the things that government will do for the health sector is to acquire 100 fully equipped ambulances.
“The Ministry of Health and Child Care has completed the tendering process for procurement of ambulances, and in this regard an amount of $68 million in additional funding is proposed to complete the procurement process that targets acquisition of 100 fully equipped ambulances,” Ncube said.
He also said to strengthen the referral health system, government was rehabilitating and upgrading health infrastructure as well as constructing rural health posts.
“With regards to central hospitals, refurbishment works for the medical gas reticulation system, theatres and incinerators at Mpilo and United Bulawayo Hospitals, have been completed. Following a fire outbreak which affected Mbuya Nehanda Maternity Hospital at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in February 2019, refurbishment of wards and installation of new theatre equipment has been completed and the hospital is now fully operational,” Ncube said.

newsday - August 5, 2019

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 procedure in the appointment of board members.
“We are working flat out to ensure that the board is well represented through following stipulated procedures,” he said.
“We anticipate that the board would be fully constituted for appointment within the next month.”
Since the departure of Dr Magure, NAC has so far seen two directors taking up the CEO role in acting capacities.
Pressure groups continue to advocate for the quick appointment of both the board and the CEO, arguing that lack of leadership at such levels impedes efficiency and effectiveness in resource allocation and usage.
The Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) is the latest organisation to call for a speedy reconstitution of the NAC board.
A number of other organisations, including those representing people living with HIV and Aids, petitioned Parliament earlier this month with the same concern.
CWGH executive director Mr Itai Rusike said NAC appeared to be failing to execute its mandate of late, as evidenced by a number of allegations, including misuse of public funds, maladministration, corruption and nepotism.
People on treatment are also reportedly battling to access enough drugs.
“The minister needs to urgently appoint board members and a substantive CEO for this organisation to make sure that it functions normally and makes important policy decisions that address the current burden of disease, integration of care and enable the country to attain developmental and universal health coverage goals,” said Mr   Rusike.
He said apart from reconstitution of the board, NAC must also provide a comprehensive review of its work, 20 years on.
Mr Rusike said the Aids Levy was a public purse, which must always be accounted for.
NAC is an organisation that came into being through an Act of Parliament in 1999 to coordinate and facilitate the national multi-sectoral response to HIV and Aids.

Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Health Reporter

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, no substantive appointments have been made, with Moyo recently saying they were following due process and that within a month, these appointments would have been made.
Agitated HIV activists are disgruntled and dissatisfied at the dragging process. The ZNNP+ Harare province advocacy chairperson Charles Kautare said the board was needed to make sound and coherent decisions. “The delay impacts negatively upon its service delivery mandates, bearing in mind that almost 100 000 people living with HIV and Aids are on second line treatment and are facing severe shortages of drugs,” he said.

Kautare also said given the prevailing situation, it would be difficult to meet the targeted 2030 mark of ending the devastating effects of the disease.
Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) director Itai Rusike also weighed in, saying the reconstitution of the board was critical since NAC, as an organisation, manages public funds (Aids Levy) and plays a pivotal role in the country’s HIV and Aids response. “The Honourable Minister needs to urgently appoint board members and a substantive chief executive officer for this organisation to make sure that NAC functions normally and makes important policy decisions that address the current burden of disease, integration of care and enable the country to attain developmental and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) goals,” he said.
Rusike said they felt strongly that the appointment of the CEO had taken too long considering the critical role that NAC plays in providing measures to combat the spread of HIV as well as management, co-ordination and implementation programmes that reduce the impact of HIV and Aids in the country.
“We disapprove the current ad-hoc and reactive appointments being done at NAC, an important organisation that holds keys to millions of lives that cannot do without its services,” he said.
“This points to serious management and governance shortcomings, and we strongly feel this runs contrary to the new dispensation’s thrust of health for development. We cannot allow such an important institution to operate on auto-pilot.”
The CWGH also made an urgent appeal for the reconstitution of other strategic and key governance institutions such as the Public Health Advisory Board, the National Cancer Forum and in addition set up a forum that looks at UHC.

©newsday - July 23, 2019  PHYLLIS MBANJE