Low turnout at Public Health Bill hearing in Mutare

Ray Bande Mutare Bureau
THE Ministry of Health and Child Care must do away with district medical officers and create an office that accommodates all facets of public health, participants at a Public Health Bill hearing, said in Mutare yesterday. The poorly attended public hearing, which was convened by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health, saw a few medical practitioners and members of the public gathering at Mutare Hall to air their views on the ongoing consultations ahead of debate in the House of Assembly on the bill.

In his contribution during the public hearing, National Aids Council Provincial Manager for Manicaland Evos Makoni said the bill should remove the office of the district medical officer.
“I think it is time we do away with the office of the district medical officer.

“We need to accommodate all aspects of public health and the limitations to medical issues do not provide for that.
“We are also worried by the mass exodus of doctors to managerial positions leaving our hospitals without personnel.
“We thought when they graduate they would add to the small numbers in our hospitals, but most of them are taking managerial positions leaving us wondering whether they are the only ones with managerial skills.

“We also want to the Bill to stipulate that pharmacies should be compelled to declare statistics of patients they would have assisted with drugs.

“We are having challenges in accounting for the actual number of people on anti-retroviral drugs simply because pharmacies are not obliged to give us details on the number of patients they assist, which gives us problems when collating statistics on the number people on treatment in the province,” he said.

A member of the Zimbabwe Nurses Association, who also contributed during the event, said the Bill must do more to protect health workers.

“It is sad that in every other industry workers benefit from the service they provide such as ZESA and other organisations, but health workers die of diseases that can easily be managed simply because they cannot afford health care especially after retirement.

“We, as health workers, need free health care. There is no mention of the health worker in the Bill.
“Even when it comes to abuse by patients, we have nowhere to turn to yet the same Bill gives protection to patients if wronged by a health worker,” she said.