Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr David Parirenyatwa has said government of Zimbabwe is working to achieve the 25 percent reduction in premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by 2025 and has already begun a process of retooling public hospitals through funding the procurement of new linear accelerators and brachytherapy equipment without donor support.
Officiating at the opening the Regional Training course on quality management in radiotherapy, Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr David Parirenyatwa said there is need to establish strong governance and quality management systems for health centres to enhance quality service delivery.
Parirenyatwa said Zimbabwe has made a steady improvement on the manpower front due to partnership with the University of Zimbabwe’s College of Health Sciences resulting in training of Radiation Oncologists and Radiotherapy technicians.
“Further, we eagerly await the first crop of Medical Physicists that is due to graduate from the National University of Science and Technology. We are hopeful that these initiatives will be able to supply the required competencies and also support other countries in the region and beyond,” said Parirenyatwa.
He added that “The use of radiotherapy is one such key strategy in order to control the spread of the disease. However the status on the availability of such treatment facilities in Africa has painted a sad picture for a long time, plagued by a myriad of challenges.
“These include limited or lack of access in some countries, shortage of qualified personnel and old, frequently breaking down equipment.”
According to Parirenyatwa, many factors need to be considered to ensure quality radiotherapy treatment and these are availability of qualified personnel and careful equipment selection among others.
“These are not limited availability of trained and qualified personnel, careful equipment selection, available skills as well as robust policies and procedures,” said Parirenyatwa.
