Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube ,Online Reporter
MOBILE health service provision is becoming the in-thing in Zimbabwe where medical practitioners are embracing digital technology and innovating new ways of attending to patients in the comfort of their home.
A local medical doctor, Dr Tapfuma Parirenyatwa, with 10 years of practicing experience in the medical field, started a network of medical practitioners to do literally door-to-door consultation and treatment of patients.
This also includes other services other than direct medical treatment.
In an interview on the sidelines of the just ended 14th edition of the Association of Health Funders of Zimbabwe (AHFoZ) annual stakeholders conference on health in Victoria Falls, Dr Parirenyatwa said technology is the new way the world is going and should be embraced into the medical field.
The conference started on Wednesday with an innovation workshop and ended on Friday under the theme ‘Health at turning point’.
Dr Parirenyatwa said he discovered the niche business when he would visit friends and relatives and realised there was need to take that route.
“About three years ago I started a business called health at home which is just a consortium of doctors who do home visits and treat patients in the comfort of their homes. You would find within your networks a lot of people are frustrated and or don’t like to go to hospital.
“I realised I could scale up as more people needed that service. As an individual I couldn’t serve everyone so I decided to add other doctors and we worked as a team according to where one works and lives,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.
He said the consortium has grown to a network of 75 doctors, nurses and other practitioners offering a wide network of services found at any ideal hospital.
There is a call centre where clients and patients make inquiries on a dashboard and a doctor who is available and closer to where the patient is the one that attends.
Dr Parirenyatwa said health at home is a one-stop shop for health needs with a cross section of services.
When a doctor visits, he or she is able to prescribe or refer the patient to any service he or she may need within the network.
These include gynecologists, physicians, dieticians, fitness trainers and many others.
Dr Parirenyatwa said the client base is very broad and people in the diaspora are also included.
“Our client base is very broad including diplomats, Ministers and ordinary citizens. We have people in the diaspora who want their relatives treated and they contact the call centre to have a doctor or any practitioner go and see them.
‘We have now further advanced and we have a mobile application where people can book and pay and have a doctor attend to them. They can tell in real time which doctor is coming and how long they will take and thereafter they get a report with review dates depending on what the doctor would have established,” said the doctor.
For now the services are found in urban areas mostly Harare, Gweru and Bulawayo.
Dr Parirenyatwa said work is underway to expand to other parts of the country and also to partner with medical aid societies.
“We are trying to grow organically. We don’t want today we can reach everyone and we have confined ourselves now to Harare, Gweru and Bulawayo because that’s where our doctors are, but as the business grows we will get other doctors that can service clients in other areas.
“It’s been a premium service but we are collaborating with medical aids to try and have a package where people can pay an amount for the service of health at home. Since it’s a new phenomenon we are trying to come up with an affordable price. Technology is the way the world is going and there is need to embrace it and we should fight it,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.
He said the medical field requires patience and loyalty.
Health at home motto is trying to make patients comfortable in their own homes.
Online Reporter
Sidumisile Mabena