Deeds not words, doctors tell ED
KUDAKWASHE CHIBVURI AND VIMBAI TANDI
While President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been showered with praises for doing the previously unthinkable by visiting crisis-ridden hospitals in Harare in a private motorcade and without the usual security, doctors say visiting alone is not enough and they now wait for urgent action.
The crisis in the public health sector has become grim with experts describing hospitals run by the government as “death traps.”
So dire is the situation that many hospitals have gone for years without bandages, pain-killers and other basics.
What has been worrying is the silence by Mnangagwa’s administration over the dire state of public hospitals and it took Youth Minister, Tinomudaishe Machakaire, to plead with the President to go see for himself the crisis.
Business Times recently investigated the situation in public hospitals and unearthed that dozens of people are dying in hospitals while moral among the workers remain all-time low.
“The situation is urgent; we need accountability and action,” the doctors under the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said yesterday.
“We believe the visit provided President Mnangagwa with an opportunity to appreciate first-hand the state of public health services delivery system in Zimbabwe which is generally plagued by dilapidated infrastructure, shortages of drugs and consumables and demoralized human resources,” the doctors for human rights said.
The doctors said a commission of inquiry must be instituted to find the actual truth on the state of affairs then act to address the challenges.
On Monday, Mnangagwa, with Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda and his deputies, used a private motorcade for the tours of the two hospitals.
Mnangagwa took time to interact with doctors, patients and other staff who shared with him the challenges they are going through.
His team took notes.
Business Times’ recent investigations on the crisis
Recently, an investigation was undertaken by the Business Times to establish the crisis in the health sector and the findings were hair-raising.
At the Sally Mugabe hospital, nurses are forced to push out dead bodies over the windows to the mortuaries because of malfunctioning elevators.
Medicine is not readily available to desperate patients with many who have curable diseases that need basic medication dying.
Essential services such as electricity and running water have become luxuries, with frequent power cuts crippling critical operations.
“It’s disheartening to see how the system has failed us,” a health worker said then.
At Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, the situation is no better.
Protests have been the order of the day and those who go to work only go for their personal “deals.”
“We can no longer work in these circumstances,” one nurse said.
The mental toll on healthcare workers is palpable; many feel overwhelmed and disillusioned. Patients, too, share their struggles.
The crisis according for ex-Minister
Former Health Minister Henry Madzorera has been vocal about the urgent need for action and recently said if someone is to act, the time is now before it’s too late.
“Virtually nothing is working in our hospitals. It’s decapitation everywhere,” he said.
“Patients are being forced to pay out of pocket for tests that should be conducted here.”
Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, George Charamba, on his X account acknowledged the overwhelming challenges facing the healthcare system and said the President was taking action to address the challenges.
“It was clear from the visit that the whole health delivery hierarchy needed attention.” Charamba wrote.
Critics have questioned the sincerity of the President’s visit with many describing it as a publicity stunt but that is not correct, according to Zanu PF.
“These visits are not symbolic gestures but the beginning of sweeping reforms aimed at restoring Zimbabwe’s struggling health sector,” Zanu PF Director of Information, Farai Marapira said.
