Zimbabwe General Medical Aid Fund (ZG Medical) through its subsidiary portfolio in Zambia, Prime Mutual Properties (PMP), is assisting service providers under its radar to procure drugs in order to cushion its subscribers against the massive foreign currency shortages in the country.
The Gweru based firm is assisting pharmacies and hospitals to import drugs that require foreign currency through its subsidiary PMP in Zambia.
Speaking on the sidelines of a ZG Medical golf tournament and annual dinner for charity held at the Gweru Golf Club over the weekend, TM Group board chairman Dr Tinashe Manzungu said in order to bolster its subscribed medical aid members, the company was acquiring medicines outside the country amid the forex crisis.
“Shortage of drugs in pharmacies and Hospitals has resulted in us engaging our local service providers, for the sake of our clients, assisting them to get foreign currency through our Zambian subsidiary PMP.
“We help them with procurement of drugs through pharmacies which means we don’t have any challenges with medication to our ZG Medical clients, profits made by PMP in Zambia are then chanelled towards importing drugs into the country,” he said.
Dr Manzungu said as a result, ZG Medical has seen a spike in client registration which has risen to more than 35 000 from across the country in the last quarter of 2018.
Of the 35 000, Dr Manzungu said, 15 000 are from Gweru.
“To date we have an average of about 35 000 lives that are subscribing to us, not only in Gweru but all over the country where we have these service providers.
“But the biggest number so far is in Gweru, why Gweru? I think it is because we are all Headquartered here in Gweru and we want to make Gweru live well as you know, charity begins at home.
“We have about 15 000 lives registered with ZG Medica Aid Fund in Gweru alone,” he said.
Dr Manzungu said TM Group will soon be launching a TM Life Card that will allow its clients to access services from all its seven subsidiaries through an electronic card to ensure convenience to clients as well as subsidies cost of services.
“Our latest innovation is the ‘TM Life Card’ where all our group services are offered to clients in one click or one swipe, hence reducing transaction charges.
“With an array of services, a client using the card can access all our subsidiaries and get services which will be at their convenience,” he said.
ZG Medical taps into the country’s low income and jobless market which is usually neglected by most insurance and medical aid firms, as Miss Vanessa Moyo the ZG Medical Public Relations Officer notes.
“The constitution provides every Zimbabwean with the right to healthcare but the medical aid insurance sector has sidelined most of the unemployed citizens, which means 90 percent of the 16 million total population cannot afford healthcare assurance cover.
“Health insurance has become a luxury in Zimbabwe but ZG Medical is breaking that rift as it targets those clients providing cover from as little as $5,” she said during the ZG Medical prize giving ceremony after the golf tournament.
The Medical Aid firm has formed partnerships with reputable institutions in the Province which include the Midlands State University, Premier Service Medical Insurance, United Bulawayo Hospital, Claybank Hospital, Midlands Private Hospital, Doctors, Pharmacists among several others.
ZG Medical is part of TM Group of Companies, which is into property development, health, Information Communication Technology (ICT), micro-finance, farming, funeral services among other portfolios
