adminWalter Mswazie in Chiredzi
CHIREDZI District Hospital is owed more than $1,5 million in user fees by patients most of whom do not have the means to pay.
Presenting the hospital’s financial report during a tour at the health institution by the Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr David Parirenyatwa, Chiredzi hospital accountant Haurovi Zibuko, said the hospital’s efforts to meet all its objectives were being hindered by the non-payment of user fees by the majority of patients.
He said recovering the debts was a huge challenge as most of them did not have the means to pay.
Zibuko said as a government hospital, they are obliged to live up to their mandate of saving life even before one pays for the service.
He said efforts have been made to recover the monies, but their engagements had not been successful.
“It’s refreshing to note that as Chiredzi Hospital, we don’t owe Natpharm which supplies us with drugs any money. We’re paid up as an institution but the challenge we’re facing now is we’re owed $1,537,426,53 by our patients. We’ve patients who receive services from here but leave without paying due to their social status and most of them are still owing us,” said Zibuko.
He said the failure to recover the money was compromising the hospital’s operations.
“Our user fees are $6 for adults and $2 for children. However, these fees seem to be beyond the reach of many patients and we end up attending to them hoping that they’ll pay later. If we manage to recover the money, I hope we can be better off as an institution,” he said.
Dr Parirenyatwa said hospitals should find better mechanisms to recover their monies, but was quick to dismiss the hiring of debt collectors to terrorise patients.
“We appreciate the situation at Chiredzi Hospital where patients owe them more than $1,5 million. The situation is unfortunate but we encourage hospitals to come up with better strategies to recover the debts as opposed to engaging debts collectors, that’s not the Ministry’s policy. We say no to such practices,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.
The Minister and his delegation from the Ministry and Natpharm is touring a number of hospitals in the country in a move meant to appreciate challenges faced by health institutions.
The delegation has also been to Masvingo General Hospital and Silveira Mission Hospital in Bikita.
Online Reporter