Director of Epidemiology and Disease Control in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Portia Munangazira has told journalists that participation of the private sector in vaccination is almost non- existence during a press conference in Harare on Friday.
Munangazira said the ministry needed more participation from the private sector.
“We have had reluctance or hesitance on the part of private sector involvement in vaccination in general including childhood vaccinations to the extent that our surveys, we have done two surveys that looked at private sector contribution to vaccinology. It hardly goes above 2%,” Munangazira said.
“It’s just a few private sector players in vaccination and we think it’s not fair for the patience that prefer to be seen in the private; we want them (patience that prefer the private sector) to access the same quality of services where ever.”
Munangazira also said the private sector does not want to employ qualified staff.
“We don’t give vaccines to people that are not qualified to handle them (vaccines), the director said. There must be a trained nurse to administer the vaccines.”
“Even when we say we are doing our programs in schools, its not the school teachers or the school health masters that vaccinate. It is our trained personnel.”
“Ku private sector kunongoiswa nurse akapfeka zvinhu zvakanaka but they are not trained as nurses. Half of them are Redcross people”(Private sector personnel will be neatly dressed but not trained as nurses), Munangazira went on.
The disease Control Director also told the journalists that private sector players are not keen to keep records for maintenance checks.
“Vaccines must be kept in what is called the cold chain… and private sector are not keen to give us recordings of the temperatures, we want to know that from the time this vaccine landed in Zimbabwe, it has been kept in proper conditions so that the contents has not changed so that when we give to the child, there are no adverse effects, the vaccine is effective it does what it is manufactured to do,” the director said.
“So if it has boiled or if it has frozen rimwe zuva isati yapihwa mwana ichatadza kushanda.” (So if it has boiled or if it has frozen, it will one day not produce the required effects).
About 25-30% of the people in Harare alone use the private sector for health services.
The director also said the ministry needs the private sector on board.
“Our interest as ministry is can they be more forth coming can they serve the clients better and more comprehensively as we move towards a universal health coverage,” Munangazira said.
