The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) has revealed that the USD$1 Million secured by government towards procurement of medicines and equipment needed in public hospitals is not adequate to meet their requirements.
This comes after the government responded to the medical doctors who wrote to the Health Services Board, expressing anxiety over the government’s failure to fulfill its promises.
In an interview with 263Chat, Spokesperson of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA), Dr Mthabisi Bhebhe said on average they need a minimum of USD$5,5 Million per month, charging the USD$1 Million availed by government is not adequate for the medical sector.
“On average we require a minimum of 5.5 million per month for adequate drug stocking nationwide,” said Bhebhe.
ZHDA said they met in January and discussed issues to improve the doctors’ working conditions, through the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), but to date, very few things have been fulfilled making the situation even more dire for them.
In their letter to government, the Health Services Board said hospitals were in a dire state with no basic medical supplies with basic and lifesaving medicines unavailable while bemoaning the absence of communication on what the parent ministry is doing to address the challenges.
” It has been observed with grave concern, cases of fatally ill patients being deprived of lifesaving services because the diagnostic and theatre equipment is not fully functional,” read the letter.
Addressing doctors yesterday, Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Obadiah Moyo said government had already set up various committees to address challenges facing the health sector.
“We have already set up various committees like a health assembly that includes consultants and all nursing staff. The health assembly has to meet on a continuous basis and come up with solutions to the problems within the ministry such as drug supply, equipment, medicines and working conditions,” Moyo said.
“This is the approach that we are working on. We want everyone to work as one team. We have managed to secure from the Ministry of Finance US$1 million. We want to get a team of the end users to make determinations on what should be purchased,” he added.
