adminSanctions-induced challenges bedevilled the private and public health systems, leading to a situation where the common man lost faith in the health system.
However, since the advent of the multi-currency system and several initiatives by the State, there has been an improvement in health provision in public hospitals.
What is worrying, however, is that instead of the focusing on providing a better service to the patients, there is more talk and disagreement over the cost of the services between stakeholders in the health sector.
Over the years, the Zimbabwe Medical Association and the Association of Health Care Funders of Zimbabwe have left patients inconvenienced due to their failure to agree on medical fees, with medical aid society members being asked to pay cash at surgeries to top up on what their medical aid societies were willing to pay.
This situation has really eroded the value of medical aid since being a holder of a medical aid card is no longer a guarantee that one would get medical services from medical institutions.
We understand that Zima and AHFoZ are expected to conclude negotiations on medical consultation fees by the end of the month. We are heartened though by the commitment from Zima that it seeks to ensure that patients are not burdened with co-payments.
“Our aim is to ensure that patients get treatment without paying a co-payment or at least a very minimal co-payment rather than the current scenario,” said Zima president Dr Enock Tatira.
It is our hope that medical institutions and health care funders share this view that patients should never be inconvenienced.
The obtaining situation where there is no agreed tariff structure has seen some patients paying up to three quarters the consultation fees and it is our view that the present negotiations should rid the sector of this costly anomaly.
The AHFoZ tariff for general practitioners consultation fees is US$20 while doctors had proposed US$35.
The delay in reaching an agreement to safeguard the interests of patients has seen the Joint Advisory Council stepping in and issuing an ultimatum for parties in the talks to come up with an agreed tariff or risk having an imposed one.
We believe in consensus and we hope we will not get to a situation where the tariff is imposed on the parties.
Also, now that medical aid societies, including those that had arrears, have been given a clean bill of health by the authorities, we expect the medical practitioners to accept members of such societies without discrimination while the medical aid societies should also honour their obligations to deserve such treatment.
When all is said and done, it should never be forgotten that the aim of medical aid societies is to take care of the health needs of their members in conjunction with the medical practitioners. These two parties need each other and once their relations are strained, the patient suffers as is the case now where different fees are the order of the day.
We believe there is a need for an agreement that guarantees the health of patients while ensuring that medical practitioners’ pockets are not compromised.
Online Reporter