Parly raps health funding

Herald Reporter
HEALTH laws are biased towards funding Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals at the expense of other Government health institutions that do more work, a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee has said.
In its proposed 2014 National Budget review, the portfolio committee on Health and Child Care said the situation was unsustainable, hence the need for the Statutory Instrument governing Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals to be reviewed.

Presenting the committee’s report in the National Assembly on Tuesday, committee chairperson Dr Ruth Labode (MDC-T) said the fact that Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals was allocated more funds than Harare Hospital raised a lot of questions.

“The committee noted that the disparities between two hospitals in the same city, that is Parirenyatwa and Harare Central Hospital is mind boggling,” she said.

“Harare Central Hospital carries a huge burden of diseases. Tomorrow if there is an outbreak of cholera here, all patients will be sent to Harare Hospital and not Parirenyatwa.

“If you look at the statistics that are available, it is evident that Harare Hospital has a bigger workload but this 2014 Budget allocated Harare Hospital US$1,5 million and Parirenyatwa was allocated US$5 million.

“We have evidence that Parirenyatwa makes US$6 million from user fees. The monies that come from user fees, are for some reason, not mentioned anywhere in the budget. That worries us because that money has a reflection on equity issues.

“There are institutions that do not make anything. If you go to UMP (Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe) they make US$100. I know institutions that make US$20 a month because the surrounding communities can’t afford to pay.”

She said the portfolio committee wanted to revisit and interrogate the Statutory Instrument governing Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals. The portfolio committee also raised concern with the money allocated to Government hospitals. Dr Labode said the committee discovered that Treasury allocated US$23,8 million to the hospitals that owed their suppliers about US$36,4 million from last year.

In essence, she said, Government hospitals were not allocated funds for this year since the US$23,8 million was likely to be forfeited by suppliers who are owed.

To that end, the committee recommended that Government assumes the hospitals’ debt.