Chronicle Editor
Zimbabweans are importing motor vehicles on a massive scale, yet there does not appear to be a policy to assess the state of the vehicles at points of entry beside restrictions on year of manufacture. So long as this remains the case, the authorities must be prepared to grapple with the menace of defective vehicles, unlicensed and drunken drivers sharing our roads with the rest.
The result is numerous accidents and more often than not, Government has to declare a state of disaster when a lot of people are involved. When this happens, it means money must be diverted from other pressing national developmental issues to assist bereaved families with burial expenses and in some cases exorbitant medical bills.
It is against this backdrop that a holistic approach must be adopted to ensure that all Zimbabweans play ball as far as curbing carnage on our roads is concerned and that hospitals are equipped with basic equipment to save lives.
Driving is a matter of attitude and if all road users adopt an attitude that they must not cause death through accidents, our roads will be safe for all users. In an event that accidents occur, there must be mechanisms to ensure that health institutions, district or referral, have basic equipment to handle preliminary assessments of people injured in an accident.
Experts say soon after an accident, there are mandatory medical examinations to be performed on a victim, some of them very delicate and expensive processes that require Government, through the Ministry of Health and Child Care, to intervene to save lives.
Through National Health Insurance, all Government hospitals from district to national referral institutions, should be equipped and able to perform all major procedures on accident victims or anyone harmed in one way or another.
District, provincial and all referral hospitals should be able to do head Computed Tomography (CT) scans, chest and spine X-rays to check on internal bleeding among other critical procedures.
The situation at the moment is that most hospitals do not have these facilities and at times people injured as far as Beitbridge are referred to Harare or Bulawayo and in the process lives are lost. There are deplorable situations where central hospitals such as Chitungwiza and Harare refer accident victims to already overstretched Parirenyatwa Hospital because they lack facilities and specialists.
Government needs to adopt a deliberate policy where it sponsors the training as well as incentivise experts who are then deployed to various health centres doted around the country.
History has taught us that these experts are often concentrated in major cities and that their services are beyond the reach of many poor Zimbabweans, particularly those who are not on medical cover.
Government should therefore ensure that a portion of all proceeds from basic third-party insurance policy is remitted to Treasury to also help equip our health institutions.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo told the National Assembly recently that his ministry was preparing recommendations for a Road Accident Fund to be run by a State agency.
Many countries have such national insurance schemes with the premiums usually deducted at the same time and in the same place as the road tax or vehicle licence fee as it is called in Zimbabwe.
We believe that such a fund could also be used to equip hospitals so that people get better services when mishaps strike and save lives in the process.
Serious accidents killing many people are often declared national disasters allowing the State to give help. But more people die in less serious accidents and for the families who survive it does not make much difference whether the breadwinner died with others or died alone.
The present statutory third party scheme is not very helpful, even when it is not being circumvented. There is therefore a need for policy shift in this area, with Government making sure that no live is unnecessarily lost on our roads.
Online Reporter
dyton mupawaenda