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Parliament To Boycott 2018 Budget Unless It Meets Abuja Target

The Parliamentary Portfolio committee on Health says it will not entertain a flimsy allocation of funds to the health sector in the forthcoming 2018 budget presentation unless the 15% Abuja target is met.
This was said by Matabeleland North senator Sibusisiwe Budha-Masara at the Pre-budget review workshop organized by the Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) held on Wednesday in Harare.
“I think as a country, this is something that I would want Zimbabweans to consider even though there is little time for you to put your input into this budget. But I think this is the opportunity for us to say whatever we feel the budget must look like because a healthy nation in terms of economic development we need healthy manpower and it is our right that we must receive quality health as citizens of this country,” she said.
She added that health must be prioritized in this year’s budget allocation.
“I think we need to lobby and talk to relevant organisations who can assist us that this budget this time around must pay priority to health,” said the Senator.
Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Abuja Declaration of 2001 in which African Union countries pledged to allocate at least 15 percent of their annual budgets to improving the health sector. Since then, the country is yet to meet the target. In the 2017 budget, the health sector only got 7 percent.
She declared that should the budget miss the Abuja declaration on allocating 15 percent of the National Budget, it risks not seeing the light of day.
“If it does not meet the 15 percent Abuja Declaration, I think we have got all the power to deny it that it cannot be passed as long as health in Zimbabwe is not a priority,” she said.
Binga North MP Prince Dubeko Sibanda sharing his experience in Uganda learnt that if a budget ignores the plight of the marginalized it doesn’t get Parliamentary approval to be passed.
“One thing I took in Uganda, they have got a law which says unless the budget meets certain criteria or takes care of people that are generally marginalized that budget should not be passed. Its part and parcel of their law. Its never passed,” the parliamentarian said.
With just three weeks before the 2018 Budget is announced by the new Finance and Economic development minister Dr Ignatious Chombo, the parliamentary portfolio committee, NGOs expect the treasury to meet the Abuja declaration which states that 15 percent of the National budget should be dedicated to Health to show commitment of ensuring a healthy and productive nation.
Presenting the 2017 national budget year, the then Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced that $281,9 million will be channeled towards the sector inclusive of remuneration for the public health care personnel ($223 million), operations and maintenance ($29,6 million), as well as capital expenditure that has been pegged at $29,5 million.

 

October 11, 2017October 11, 2017 NewsRoom By Kudakwashe Pembere
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Harare Now an Ancient City…As Harare Tops In Typhoid Cases – Health Times

THE city of Harare now resembles an ancient town as it lacks the characteristics and requisites of a modern day city due to poor planning and recurrent diarrheal diseases like Typhoid and Cholera which were most prominent during ancient times.
Typhoid was first discovered in 1880 in New York City but is also believed to have existed around 430 BC in Greece where it almost wiped out a whole army.
Briefing a Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) Public Dialogue meeting on Recurrent Outbreak of Typhoid and Diarrheal Diseases, Director for Epidemiology and Disease Control in the Ministry of Health, Dr Portia Manangazira said Harare is now a serious health hazard due to increased activities which are fertile breeding ground for ancient diseases like Typhoid and Cholera.
“What is an urban area, it is defined, but when you go to Hopley Farm and Hatcliff you wonder whether its urban or rural. This is where we get it wrong, we want to be urban but we are not that urban. Urban areas come with its stipulations and unfortunately we are failing to them in Zimbabwe. We have to start by regulated urbanisation first, and we are already talking 30, 50 years ago just making a proper urban setting and then the state that now lead you to a healthy city.
“If you go to a city in Europe today, you would think you are in a forest, they are well wooded with trees and open spaces, but what are we doing with our cities here, we put houses and then the houses are not serviced there is no sewage, there is no waste management systems, so we have gone back to the Victorian type of a city and yet we still want to be associated with modern times,” said Dr Manangazira.
She added that Zimbabwean cities are demoting health rather than promoting and called on local authorities to fix the mess and restore the City to its former Sunshine City status. She also said water in the city should only from tapes and not boreholes and wells.

A borehole with an installed Chlorinator
A borehole with an installed Chlorinator

Harare has seen an uncontrollable sprouting of overpopulated illegal residential areas like Hopely, Calledonia (though it was recently regularised) Epworth and others. The areas lack in basic health, water and sanitation facilities as most residents uses bushes as toilets and get water from unprotected holes and boreholes.
According to city health experts, most boreholes in Harare in particular Hatcliff are contaminated and residents should use best water treatment methods like chlorinating or boiling water before use. Hatcliff recently had more than 13 inl-ine boreholes Chlorinators installed in a bid to reduce the spread of Typhoid through drinking water.
A borehole with an installed Chlorinator
Meanwhile, Dr Issac Phiri also from the department of Epidemiology in the ministry of health said Harare has recoded highest Typhoid cases since it was first reported in 2009.
“From January, we had an increase in cases of Typhoid in Harare, specifically in Mbare where over 1 405 as we speak and 78 of them were laboratory confirmed. Unfortunately, three deaths were recorded and this could be an underestimation.
“By district, Harare, has contributed a majority, over 80 percent of the cases were reported in Harare. Over 1 2018 have been reported in Harare. Mashonalnd Central, 200 cases, Mash West, 30 cases and these have been conformed to be Typhoid. All deaths were recorded in Harare.”

September 29, 2017 NewsRoom By Michael Gwarisa
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Nurses’ shortage hits Binga . . . unqualified village health workers man clinic

Unqualified village health workers in Binga are reportedly manning a clinic located about 180 kilometres from Binga District Hospital.
Chunga Clinic, which is the furthest public health centre from Binga Centre, is difficult to access due to a poor road network and also has poor telephone network.
Binga North Member of Parliament Mr Prince Madubeko Sibanda said the district, which is a high risk area for malaria, was failing to access healthcare due to a shortage of nurses.
He said village health workers were forced to take on the job of trained nurses when most of them were only qualified in basic first aid.
“Some of our clinics are still manned by village health workers with no certified nurses and that’s a challenge,” said Mr Sibanda. “We also have a serious shortage of ambulances, for example from the district hospital to the furthest clinic in the constituency it’s a distance of about 180km.
“Firstly, it is difficult to communicate. The bad road network makes it difficult for patients to travel to the district hospital, hence many resort to traditional healers.”
Mr Sibanda said the district urgently needed ambulances to ease the burden.
“About 10 years ago we were promised that Siabuwa Clinic would be upgraded to a hospital to improve the situation. It is very difficult to retain doctors in rural areas. As we speak we have only three junior doctors for the whole district,” Mr Sibanda said.
He said most villagers in the area were poverty stricken and could not afford the user fees charged at health centres.
Speaking during the just ended 24th Community Working Group on Health annual meeting, Mr John Ngirazi, the chairperson of the organisation, appealed to Government to increase public funding in the health sector.
“It is worrying to note that in the past few months, the country has experienced outbreaks of medieval diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery and scurvy diseases that were completely eliminated in some parts of the world and Zimbabwe at one time,” he said.
“Zimbabwe’s health challenges are also compounded by health systems’ constraints such as a critical shortage of personnel, ageing equipment and infrastructure, limited funding and lack of enabling health policies.”
The country’s health institutions need about 8 000 nurses to operate smoothly amid revelations that there are about 4 200 qualified unemployed nurses.
Health and Child Care Minster Dr David Parirenyatwa recently told Senators that he was working tirelessly to ensure that there is an update of the establishment which was last revised in 1983.

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Village health workers earn $14

June 24, 2017 in News

Village health workers across the country’s provinces earn a paltry $14 each month, given to them on a quarterly basis by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other development partners, it has been revealed.
By Vanessa Gonye
The workers move around communities educating people on preventing and treating common ailments related to HIV, typhoid and tuberculosis among others.
Speaking at the Community Working Group on Health annual national meeting in Harare on Thursday, Binga North Member of Parliament, Prince Sibanda, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health, expressed concern at the meagre earnings being given to over 2 000 village health workers (VHWs) across the country.
“The burden they are carrying is too much compared to the remuneration they are getting,” he said.
Sibanda bemoaned the fact that the VHWs were doing more than what was initially set for them whereby each person would work in a single village, but now each of them was obliged to work in around five villages in near-round-clock routine.
He urged government to prioritise health services and cut on unnecessary expenditures.
“We made a recommendation that at least they should be given $200 per month, in addition to what our development partners are bringing in so that we encourage them to continue doing their work,” Sibanda said.
A VHW from Goromonzi acknowledged that they were indeed earning $14 per month for the services they were offering in their villages.
“We get $14 per month which comes on a quarterly basis from UNDP though it is not guaranteed as it may never be availed, some haven’t received anything from 2004,” Isabel Mombe from Chikwaka said.
“We really don’t know who is responsible for paying us though we hear it’s UNDP, it is not really clear and we don’t know who to ask when we do not receive our money.”
According to ZimStat, in 2014 the total consumption poverty datum line for one person was $102, which places village health workers way beneath that margin.

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Chronicle scribe scoops health reporter award

Chronicle reporter Thandeka Moyo (left) receives a certificate and a trophy from Mr Douglas Moyo, the Bulawayo National Aids Council officer (right), while Mr Nobert Dube of the Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) looks on during the CWGH Health reporting journalists awards at a Bulawayo hotel on Friday. Thandeka won the best CWGH health reporter award

Cynthia Dube, Chronicle Reporter
THE Chronicle’s award winning journalist Thandeka Moyo last Friday scooped the 2017 Maternal, Child and Sexual Reproductive Health Rights Award.
Moyo, The Chronicle’s health reporter was named the winner of the inaugural award courtesy of the Community Working Group on Health (CWGH).
She was awarded for a series of stories on maternal health she produced, including a story about a woman who died while giving birth at Mpilo Central Hospital due to negligence.
For her ninth journalism award, Moyo walked away with a certificate, a trophy and cash.
Freelance reporter Jermaine Ndlovu was the first runner-up.
Anastasia Ndlovu and Pamenus Tuso, also freelance reporters were second runner-ups. Addressing guests who attended the presentation ceremony in Bulawayo, CWGH board member Mr Norbert Dube urged journalists to continue reporting on health issues affecting Zimbabweans in order to force authorities to act.
“We value and appreciate your leading role in promoting quality health coverage in Zimbabwe.
“I would like to urge you to continue informing, educating and raising awareness on various issues affecting communities in the country such as bilharzia, intestinal worms, elephantiasis, leprosy and blinding trachoma and other common diseases,” said Mr Dube.
He said media houses should engage health organisations to improve their health reportage.
Veteran journalist who was one of the adjudicators Tapfuma Machakaire said accuracy, truthfulness, fairness and balance had earned the winners the awards.
“We were also looking at the originality of the story and multi-sourcing which is very important if the story is to be informative,” said Machakaire.
He said the judges also assessed the story’s impact on society.
CWGH director Mr Itai Rusike said he was happy that unlike in the olden days, health issues were making it as news.
“It will take efforts by the Government, the private sector and the media to ensure our health sector is revived.
“We also want to appreciate media houses represented here for their effort in spreading health messages,” said Mr Rusike.

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Council must do more to contain typhoid: Experts

Failure by Harare City Council to provide basic water and sanitation services to its residents is fuelling the outbreak of water borne diseases such as typhoid and cholera, health experts have said. Water-borne diseases, the experts said, were primitive in this era. As such, the specialists called for the city to venture into private partnerships with developmental partners in order to resuscitate infrastructure which is failing to cope with the growing population.
The sentiments by the experts come after the death toll from typhoid in Harare has since risen to three from December last year.
The deaths have been recorded in Hatcliffe (1) and Mbare (2), while hundreds have been treated.
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on health member Dr Paul Chimedza said the prevention and control of water-borne diseases depends entirely on the provision of clean water and best sanitation practices.
Dr Chimedza, who is former Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care, said the conditions in Harare were breeding ground for the bacteria as most areas do not have water.
He said even if medical personnel intervened, the outbreaks would be difficult to control.
Community Working Group on Health executive director Mr Itai Rusike said the solution rests on the city in not only consistently supplying clean water, but must be coupled with regular refuse collection, and ensuring that burst pipes are fixed and replaced.
“Typhoid is a primitive disease, which council should not struggle to contain. In Harare, we are not supposed to have alternative sources of water such as boreholes and unprotected wells, but if the need arises, the city should make sure that all the alternative sources are chlorinated,” he said.
Zimbabwe College of Public Health Physicians Dr Vonai Chimhamhiwa echoed similar sentiments saying: “The city’s water supply is highly susceptible to contamination because of the old pipe system that is still in use, hence any pipes that burst, get contaminated and the risk of transmission is very high.”
Ultramed Health medical Aid Society chief executive officer Dr Sydney Mukonoweshuro called for the revival of the city’s infrastructure and spirited campaigns that will educate residents to follow strict hygiene practices.
“The water-borne disease outbreaks must be understood from the acute migration that happened to Harare. The city that had an infrastructure to handle one million people woke up accommodating millions of people. The authorities have tried their best, but it is a problem that will require huge capital investment to expand and resuscitate infrastructure,” he said.
Harare City Council Health Services director Dr Prosper Chonzi said he was in agreement with the health experts that the permanent solution for the outbreaks will be to address all the environmental issues. He said instead of him battling chronic ailments such as HIV and Aids, tuberculosis and others, he was being left to react to diseases, which could be eliminated through the provision of water and sanitation.
On Hatcliffe, Dr Chonzi said the situation had improved as only three people had presented themselves with similar symptoms of typhoid.

Harare Water director Engineer Hosiah Chisango said council had been facing technical challenges in its bid to improve water supplies.
Harare needs at least 1 200 mega-litres to enable every household to have water everyday.
The city’s water department has been failing to cope with water demand over the years, mainly because the original infrastructure was designed to serve a population of 300 000.
The city’s population has since increased to almost 2,5 million without a corresponding expansion of water infrastructure.

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Outcry over typhoid deaths

Outcry over typhoid deaths

HARARE - Zimbabwean doctors yesterday called on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) to ensure government accounts for every death as a result of archaic diseases amid unprecedented public outrage over typhoid deaths.
Zimbabwe’s government was facing scrutiny from the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) after noting the continued deplorable state of service delivery in Zimbabwe’s cities, towns and Harare in particular, saying the local authorities’ suburbs have become the epitome of failure to prioritise a safe and clean environment as a key tenet of a strong primary healthcare system.
“...we call upon the ZHRC to institute an investigation into the continued outbreaks of these archaic diseases which are preventable and proffer recommendations to both the councils and the government,” ZADHR secretary Evans Masitara told an interface meeting yesterday with the State-run ZHRC, represented by its chairperson, commissioner Elasto Mugwadi.
“We believe these continued outbreaks are a health rights violation and smack of negligence and incompetency on the part of the duty bearers.”
This comes as two children are reported to have lost their lives with total suspected cases of 604, and the outbreak spreading beyond Mbare — the disease’s epicentre — to adjacent suburbs such as Budiriro and Glen View, where many have been sickened by contaminated water and food.
“Residents are daily subjected to unsafe drinking water, burst sewer pipes and uncollected garbage.
“These conditions are conducive for the outbreak of communicable diseases and not only typhoid,” Masitara said.
Another risk is cholera, a bacterial disease that tends to break out amid intense rains in parts of Harare.
“As we all recall, Zimbabwe was attacked by a cholera outbreak in 2008 which saw deaths and over 99 000 reported cases,” Masitara said.
A cholera outbreak that started in August 2008 killed over 4 000 people and left nearly 100 000 ill. The epidemic was officially declared over in July 2009.
2010/11 also had sporadic outbreaks of typhoid in Harare.
“The conditions that favour the outbreaks are the same and this calls us to ask, have we seen nothing and have we heard nothing?” Masitara said.
Typhoid — a bacterial disease spread through poor food hygiene and contaminated water — occasionally breaks out in Zimbabwe’s poorer townships, where water supplies are still basic more than three decades after independence.
Untreated, the disease can lead to complications in the gut and head which can kill up to one in five patients.
Masitara told the ZHRC that NGOs — under the Civil Society Health Emergency Response Coordinating Committee (CSHERCC) — had called for the setup of a commission of inquiry that looks into curbing preventable diseases.
Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) executive director, Itai Rusike, said that as long as the water crisis in Harare was not addressed, residents will continue to be exposed to diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
“The causes of the 2008 outbreak have not been addressed and the main reason for the typhoid outbreak is the unavailability of water. People are resorting to alternative sources of water which are not safe,” Rusike said.
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) chief executive, Mfundo Mlilo, blamed erratic water supplies and poor waste management for the typhoid outbreak.
“..we are concerned about this and one of our resolutions is to engage State actors so that we find a lasting solution.”
“We believe the ZHRC has a role to play in holding the Harare City Council as well as other local authorities to account,” Mlilo said.

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Tragedy feared as senior doctors join strike

Tragedy feared as senior doctors join strike

SENIOR doctors and specialists yesterday joined striking junior doctors, further paralysing services at government hospitals mostly in Harare and Bulawayo.

Public hospitals’ outpatients departments were a sorry sight, as patients were left stranded following the industrial action by doctors.
The situation at the country’s major referral hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo has taken a frightening turn, with obstetrician and gynaecologist registrars also downing tools.
This potentially puts the lives of expecting mothers, especially those requiring surgery, and their unborn babies at risk.
In a statement, the registrars, who are specialist trainees in obstetrics and gynaecology, said they no longer felt it was safe for the patients if they continued in the absence of senior resident medical officers.
“We tried to continue working, but the demands are so exhausting, such that we fear we may end up making fatal errors resulting in unwanted maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality,” the registrars said.
A2 paediatrics casualty at Parirenyatwa Hospital, which deals with children, was also shut down.
In a notice, one I Ticklay, the acting head of department paediatrics, to Noah Madziva, the clinical director, said the section had been closed in “line with contingency plans”.
“All paediatric patients will be seen and managed in main causality,” the circular read.
A tour of Parirenyatwa Hospital by the NewsDay Weekender crew yesterday revealed the shocking situation, which is most likely going to cost some lives.
Hospital emergency rooms were staffed largely by nurses and interns and waiting rooms packed with patients, many on stretchers.
Hordes of patients sat in the outpatients department in long, winding queues. The serious ones lay on stretchers, with no one to attend to them except for their relatives, who were frantically trying to get them help.
With dejected faces, the patients sat on the wooden benches unsure of when they would get to see a doctor.
“We have been here since 10 in the morning, but it is almost 2pm and we have not been attended to,” one sickly looking man, who was coughing badly, said.
A young man in his early 20s and on a stretcher, struggled to sit up maybe to get some attention, but no one came.
The pain on his face was quite evident and his swollen feet stretched out before him looked horrendous.
“We hear they are on strike or go-slow. We are not sure. All we know is there is no doctor to help us and many of us will go home unattended,” a distraught woman who was struggling to breathe, said.
The stuffy room was filled to capacity as both patients and concerned relatives milled around waiting for absolution that never came.
The situation remained dire, as many patients failed to be attended to, as most hospitals were operating with skeleton staff.
Striking doctors are deadlocked with the government over long-standing grievances which include an announcement by government that it would no longer employ them upon completion of their two-year internship, a situation that would render them jobless.
The doctors are also pressing for the government to raise their on-call allowances and want it to provide them with a duty-free motor vehicle import scheme, among other issues.
The Health ministry frantically tried to avert the disaster by offering to create 250 new posts, but the doctors scoffed at the offer, which has no time frame.
On Wednesday, as a last-ditch attempt the Health ministry sent out a desperate plea to the doctors urging them to return to work.
Hospital officials also tried to rattle the doctors into coming to work by circulating a threatening statement.
However, the doctors would have none of it and carried on with the strike.
“We have noted with utter disappointment the new tactics by various clinical directors at central hospitals, that instead of engaging doctors and try to find solutions to our current demands, they have reverted to threats and victimisation,” Edgar Munatsi, Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association president said.
Meanwhile, health stakeholders have rallied behind the doctors urging the ministry to urgently address their concerns.
The Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) said the current situation could result in prolonged human suffering and avoidable deaths.
“As CWGH, we strongly believe that the current labour dispute could have been resolved amicably if the government had honoured the promises it made to the medical practitioners last year,” Itai Rusike, CWGH’s director, said.
“It is surprising that the ministry of Health Child Care has now offered to open up 250 new posts, for junior doctors and 2 000 for nurses when it has not fulfilled last year’s promises to the same doctors.”
Meanwhile, the doctors have vowed to press on with the strike until all their concerns have been dealt with in their entirety.”

BY PHYLLIS MBANJE February 18, 2017
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Health levy introduction welcome

Charity Ruzvidzo —
The move by Minister of Finance and Economic Development Patrick Chinamasa to introduce a health levy will go a long way in improving the country’s health sector, experts say.
The health sector, which is largely dependent on donor funding, is set to benefit immensely from this domestic funding initiative. Presenting the 2017 National budget, Minister Chinamasa said it was critical that all economically active individuals contribute towards funding health services.
“It is, thus, proposed to introduce a health fund levy of 5 cents for every dollar of airtime and mobile data, under the theme, ‘Talk-Surf and Save a Life,’” said Chinamasa.
He said this will take effect from January 1, 2017. The Minister of Health and Child Care Dr David Parirenyatwa said the levy would equip the health sector with necessary resources to ease access of services for the public.
“The levy will benefit our health sector. It will be used to purchase drugs and medicine. This will assist in increasing the accessibility drugs of in our hospitals,” he said.
Dr Parirenyatwa said Minister Chinamasa was yet to prescribe how the funds are to be managed.
“The money is going to be ring fenced for health facilities only. This means it will be used to improve our health sector. It is not going to be diverted elsewhere. We are yet to hear from the Minister how the funds will be managed and distributed,” he said.
The minister said the health levy did not entail free medication for all Zimbabweans.
“Groups of people that are supposed to get free medication will still get free medication. The health levy will enable easy access of drugs and purchase of equipment in our health sector. Those that can afford to pay for medication must pay,” he said.
The health fund levy, he further said, was the correct way to go in terms of ensuring an improvement in the health sector.
Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) executive director Itai Rusike also welcomed the introduction of the levy.
“The health levy is a welcome innovative domestic health financing strategy for our public health delivery services,” he said.
“The Government must be applauded for introducing the 5 percent tax on airtime and mobile data to finance the purchase of drugs and equipment.”
The health lobby activist said this was the only way Government could ensure sustainability of current programmes in the event that external partners pull out or reduce their funding commitments to Zimbabwe.
He said the current situation where external partners fund more than 90 percent of the country’s drug requirements was unsustainable.
Rusike urged the Government to ensure transparency in the use of funds collected under the health levy.
“A strong management and accountability of funds is needed so that they are strictly used for the intended purpose. The success of the fund will also see a strong advocacy for other options for domestic funding of the health ministry to be explored further,” he said.
The health lobbyist said more strategies to raise funds needed to be explored to improve the health sector.
“There must be a further increase on cigarettes and alcohol duties or taxes,” he said.
“Adding a new earmarked tax on products with high sugar content, genetically modified foods, earmarking a certain percentage for third party insurance to fund hospital emergencies will also assist.”
Extending tax concessions for private sector contributions to the health system, Rusike said, would also help including making tax concessions to medical aid societies that have invested in areas outside their core business.
Health and Child Care Parliamentary Portfolio committee chairperson Dr Ruth Labode said the introduction of the health levy would assist in curbing the brain drain in the health sector.
“I personally advocated for the implementation of the health levy. It will help our crippled health sector. You find that we have doctors moving to other countries due to working conditions that are not conducive. The health levy will enable us to stop this,” she said.
The legislator said the health levy was likely to raise an estimated $80 million per year.
“We estimate that $80 million will be raised per year from the health levy, that is depending on how many people buy airtime.
“This should surely bring change and development to our health sector,” she said.
Dr Labode urged the Ministry of Health and Child Care to create an autonomous body to handle the funds under the health levy.
This, she said, would ensure the levy was used for its intended purposes. Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) board member Dr Evans Masitara said they supported any move to improve the ailing health sector.
“We appreciate Government’s initiative to introduce a health levy. However, the Minister of Finance should have increased the 2017 budget allocation for the health sector,” he said.
Dr Masitara reiterated the need for transparency if the health levy was to be a success in boosting the health sector.
“The Ministry of Health must put in place mechanisms that ensure funds are not abused. A panel must be set up to monitor the use of the funds. We need to see improvement, the health sector must change for the better,” he said.
Most people cannot afford to purchase drugs due to the financial constraints. In more developed countries like the United States, the health levy has contributed to healthcare access.
This goes towards assisting the poor and vulnerable groups who cannot afford to pay for health care facilities. — Zimpapers Syndication.