adminCallie-Lou Kakwere Herald Reporter
The absence of surgical emergency care cover for people who sustain serious injuries in traffic accidents is a growing public health crisis affecting the country’s major referral hospitals, local surgeons say. Zimbabwe Association of Neurological Surgeons (ZANS) secretary Dr Aaron Musara told The Herald that poor funding for the care of neurosurgical patients has worsened the plight of patients who in most cases were dying or living with debilitating injuries.
“Medical insurance companies do not cover patients who sustain serious injuries,” he said. “This has placed the burden of care on the country’s major hospitals which are struggling to care for the patients with limited resources.”
A number of neurosurgical patients in the country are road traffic accident victims who in numerous cases are taken to hospitals unaccompanied by relatives who can help with the payment of the requisite fees.
Dr Musara said it costs between $500 and $1 500 for a patient to be operated. The majority of the patients, he said, could not afford to pay for critical healthcare services that include scans, medication and operations.
“As a profession, we are overwhelmed with road traffic accident victims,” he said. “This is compounded by the fact that these are very serious injuries and patients need to be cared for sensitively.”
Most Government hospitals do not turn away such emergencies but patients do not get optimal treatment due to the breakdown of critical health care equipment or shortage of vital drugs.
“It’s very difficult for those who cannot afford or those who have no relatives to support them,” Dr Musara said
He said there was a need to establish a road traffic accident fund supported by an Act of Parliament to help take care of the victims of traffic accidents who sustain debilitating injuries.
“In Zimbabwe at the moment, the Road Traffic Act provides for mandatory third party insurance cover for all road-using vehicles.
“Ideally, this should be used to provide cover for such emergencies,” he said.
“Third party insurance is largely a nullity in the case of hit-and-run victims who are brought into hospitals unconscious and for those left permanently disabled and cannot move around to do the paperwork after an injury.”
A road accident fund which operated as a statutorily constituted body just like National Social Security Authority was a better option, he said.
Online Reporter