adminHarare Bureau
HEALTH and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa has called for the urgent unfreezing of posts and the releasing of funds budgeted for the health sector to effectively respond to issues bedevilling the sector.
Speaking after meeting top management from the sector, including provincial medical directors and hospital chief executive officers in Harare yesterday, Dr Parirenyatwa said his Ministry was aware of the overcrowding in wards and casualty departments, obsolete equipment and over stretched employees.
“My team, (Deputy Minister Paul Chimedza and permanent Secretary Brigadier General (rtd) Dr Gerald Gwinji) after calling these people, hearing what they are saying, including what is happening at Harare Hospital, the challenges of overcrowding in the maternity hospital which results in nurses having to work with very heavy workloads, has concluded that something must be done urgently,” he said.
Dr Parirenyatwa said there was urgent need to beef up the staff complement at hospitals.
“We have said no, this issue of freezing posts should be looked at. They must be unfrozen so that the workload on individual nurses is lessened, then they become more efficient, they become less irritable, they become more professional.”
Dr Parirenyatwa said while a lot of good work was being done at some institutions like Chitungwiza and Parirenyatwa hospitals where new equipment had been bought, other public health institutions were still short of cash.
Dr Parirenyatwa, who was flanked by Dr Chimedza and Brig Gen (rtd) Dr Gwinji during the brief, said so far the disbursements to public health institutions from the fiscus were between 25-35 percent of what they should be getting.
“So, we are saying outside the unfreezing of posts, release funds to the health sector to make our institutions well equipped so that people do not then go to our institutions and be asked to buy any medical sundries,” he said.
“We want all these things to be there in our institutions, but for them to be there give us money from the fiscus.”
Dr Parirenyatwa said for the five days he has been in office together with Dr Chimedza and Brig Gen (rtd) Dr Gwinji, they have managed to meet with all key persons in the Ministry to establish the state of affairs and map a way forward.
He said in the next few days, they would be meeting health parastatals such as regulatory authorities, National Aids Council (NAC) and Health Services Board with a view to get an insight on their operations.
Dr Parirenyatwa said once briefings were done they would be visiting all institutions in the country to relate official’s reports with what was on the ground and take appropriate measures.
“It is going to be a team work, team health,” he said. “We had team Zanu-PF, now we have team health. We are going to work together to make sure that the most important person is the patient. Service delivery is put uppermost.”
Dr Parirenyatwa said his Ministry was going to look into hospital and parastatals’ management, composition of boards and change or dissolve some where necessary.
Online Reporter