Govt to get tough on health boards, administrators

Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Health Reporter
Government will soon be reading the riot act to administrators and boards of directors for health institutions countrywide to instil a new culture of urgency and efficiency in addressing challenges facing the health sector, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo has said.

In an interview with The Herald following concerns by different stakeholders on the way health institutions, particularly hospitals and procurement entities were being run, Dr Moyo said administrators must change their way of doing business.

“We might be having difficulties in getting foreign currency, which is our major challenge in the health sector, but when we get the little foreign currency, our administrators must act rapidly and replenish supplies in our hospitals,” said Dr Moyo.

He said because of inefficiency and lack of urgency that kept emanating from different stakeholders, Government was planning to have change attitude meetings with all its health institution administrators.

“As Government, we are working behind the scenes to address exactly that,” said Dr Moyo. “We want everyone to work, we do not want people who sleep on duty and we want to see those changes.”

Dr Moyo said when he was at Chitungwiza Central Hospital, the Minister then, never micro-managed him, but he still performed.

“That is the attitude we want to instil in all our employees,” he said. “We are going to make sure that there is change in management, not as a result of what happened at Parirenyatwa Hospital, but it has also been part of the plan.”

Although he could not state a timeframe on how soon the public would start to see change in public health institutions, Dr Moyo said Government was treating the issue as urgent.

Dr Moyo’s latest utterances are in line with Government’s Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), which allude to the reformation of the civil service by changing its existing orientation, structure, functioning, temperament, performance and efficiency.

Through TSP, as well as Vision 2030 and the Devolution Agenda, Government is looking forward to grow Zimbabwe’s economy to middle income by the year 2030.