The public health sector in Zimbabwe suffers political institutional designs and weaknesses that inhibit quality service delivery in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, a study by policy think tank the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI) has revealed.
According to the study titled ‘Locking down Democracy in Zimbabwe’s Covid-19 Era’ institutional weaknesses are traceable to patronage networks that are fueling corruption and poor service delivery in the health sector.
“The study posits that instead of closing the gaps of corruption in the sector, the government has resorted to creating political institutional designs that have worsened the challenge of poor delivery and incapacitation in the public health sector.
“These institutional designs include patronage networks, identity politics and militarisation of the public health sector. Militarisation has been done in three related approaches-militarisation by recruitment, militarisation by deployment and militarisation by appointment.
“It has been revealed in this study that the political designs put in place have led to incapacitation that appears in form of a demotivated, intimidated and disgruntled workforce, industrial action, brain drain due to exodus of skilled workforce in the sector and linguistic barriers to healthcare delivery,” noted the study.
ZDI recommended the Government ensure adequate funding to the health sector among other interventions.
“The Government, both the executive and legislature should take drastic measures to ensure adequate funding for the health sector in line with the Abuja Declaration allocation of 15% of the total country’s annual budget to ensure smooth functioning of the sector. Particular attention must be paid towards rural healthcare centres where the majority of Zimbabwe’s total population resides.
“Significantly improve working conditions and remuneration of public healthcare workers to keep them focused on their mandate of providing healthcare services to members of the public. Pay attention to all diseases and not just Covid-19 so that there are no interruptions in the treatment and containment of other infections,” noted ZDI
The think tank called for an end to politicization and patronage deployments of human resources in the health sector.
