Doctors, making a plea on incapacitation to the parliament, said that the government’s micromanagement of hospitals has resulted in the wrong acquisition of equipment in the recent consignment from India.
Government micromanagement is whereby lists of needed goods are purchased for the hospitals from the Ministry of Health and Child Care so that goods are purchased from the head office.
“The consignment of goods purchased from India using funds released directly from His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa brought systems equipment, some of which was absolute refurbishment material. As a result, the equipment is not even working,” the plea reads.
“The procurement of equipment for use by people outside the places of use is the reason for acquisition of wrong equipment and stints of corruption.”
Besides the procurement of goods, doctors say hospitals have run out of consumables and drugs; and the equipment is broken down or obsolete.
The doctors also say there is no more handover between hospital workers due to Flexi- hours thereby destroying the continuity of care in the hospitals. Flexi-hours is whereby nurses are offered 2-3 working days per week and the workers are brought to work by buses as their counterparts wait for the same transport making handover impossible.
“While the Public-Private Partnerships systems is an option that could be explored in attending to some of the challenges of the healthcare system of our country, it’s currently adored model in Zimbabwe disadvantages patients and is open to corruption. It is literally privatisation of healthcare,” says the plea.
The medical workers also say the government’s refusal or neglect to pay the University of Zimbabwe Clinicians their clinical allowances has been causing disgruntlement among such consultancy doctors.
The government accuse physicians leaders of being sponsored by groups
The doctors also told the parliament that city hospitals are basically relying on government tertiary and central hospitals for services.
“The Minister of Health should just facilitate the capacitation of the hospitals and their workers so that services can resume,” they say.