Online Reporter
The programme to transform and modernise Zimbabwe’s health sector which is already underway, will not achieve the desired results as long as the shortcomings of management systems at Government hospitals are not addressed.
Work to transform and modernise the health sector which involves upgrading infrastructure, equipping health facilities and improving drug supply and other consumables has already started.
This follows an agreement signed between Zimbabwe and Belarus during President Mnangagwa’s State visit to Belarus in May this year.
The two countries agreed to start the modernisation programme with the reconstruction of Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals before the programme is cascaded across the country, targeting mainly provincial and district hospitals.
The transformation and modernisation programme is meant to ensure citizens receive quality health care to match international standards such as those obtaining in countries like Belarus.
Government had before the agreement with Belarus to revamp the health sector, already started working on increasing resources allocated to the health sector in line with the Abuja Declaration.
The Abuja target is for countries to allocate 15 percent of their annual budgets to the health sector.
The Government’s allocation towards health increased from 9,8 percent of the national budget in 2024 to 13,01 percent in 2025 as it moves towards the 15 percent Abuja target.
In a bid to meet its target, Government adopted a number of innovative ways to raise revenue for the health sector as opposed to waiting for donor funding. It introduced a number of levies on alcohol, cigarettes, fast foods and sugary beverages commonly known as “sin taxes”.
These efforts to improve healthcare services will however come to nought as long as the problem of mismanagement and fraud at public hospitals is not addressed.
In her financial report ending December 31, 2024, tabled in Parliament recently, the acting Auditor-General Mrs Rheah Kujinga noted that Mpilo Central Hospital, United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) and Ingutsheni Central Hospitals which are all in Bulawayo as well as Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare, are operating without management boards.
She said the obtaining situation creates a fertile ground for mismanagement and fraud hence Mpilo paid ZWL40 million to ghost workers.
There is therefore an urgent need to ensure public health institutions have competent management systems in place to ensure the transformation and modernisation of the health sector translates into improved service delivery.
