Free treatment for the poor

Dr Chimedza, a devout Christian from the United Methodist Church revelations circuit, said the initiative was offered for patients failing to access medical services due to poverty.
Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline.

The purpose is to set aside time for reflection on Jesus Christ; his suffering and his sacrifice, his life, death, burial and resurrection.
“It came as an idea from our church, the Revelation United Methodist Church.

“This is a season of lent so when our pastor was launching this season he said as individuals find someone to bless this season and make a difference in their lives,” Dr Chimedza said.

He said he took heed of the message and approached colleagues in the medical field who bought the idea and decided to offer free services last Friday and Saturday.
Dr Chimedza said a number of ordinary Zimbabweans were failing to access medical care because the public health system was not intact.

“We have seen that there is a lot of demand for medical services, even those coming from supposedly affluent suburbs but are not accessing medical services. The private sector is for the affluent, but if our public sector was working efficiently, then we would have no problems,” Dr Chimedza said.

Dr Chimedza said there was a need to capacitate provincial and district hospitals to reduce the burden of care at central hospitals.
“Central hospitals are for serious cases referred from a provincial hospital but what is happening now is that most cases end up at central hospitals resulting in overburdening of the system. This then results in an over worked staff and a strain of resources resulting in crashing of the whole system,” he said.

Dr Chimedza said the health sector needed a complete overhaul that would see restructuring of the way things were run in the sector.
He said concrete solutions were needed to sort out issues such as those of jobless nurses while institutions were short of the same.