Pathologist speaks out

Paidamoyo Chipunza Health Reporter
Zimbabwe’s only pathologist Dr Maxwell Hove said students who were trained in pathology in the past 10 years have either gone into private practice or out of the country because of poor working conditions and salaries in the public health system. Speaking to The Herald recently, Dr Hove who trains doctors at the University of Zimbabwe said an average of two students graduate every year from the UZ Medical School, but thereafter no one remains to serve in the public health system.

“I cannot give exact statistics from the head of how many we have trained in the past 10 years, but I know three of our graduates are working in United Kingdom, two have gone into private practice and some are in the US. Two others who graduated this year are still in the country and we just hope we are going to retain them,” Dr Hove said.

Although there are other pathologists working for the Health and Child Care Ministry, war veteran Dr Hove is the only one who is qualified in all disciplines of pathology.

The other pathologists are specialised in sub-specialities.
“I have one hymatologist and five hystopathologists,” Dr Hove said.

Haematologists are concerned with the study of blood, the blood-forming organs and blood diseases while hystopathologists work to analyse human tissue in order to diagnose diseases.

Other sub specialities in pathology are surgical, forensic and cyto-pathology, among others. “There is a lot of work that is involved in pathology. Diagnosis of cancer is only done by pathologists. It is actually the supreme court of medicine,” he said.

Dr Hove who between 2007 and 2009 served the whole country by himself in all disciplines said, if he had left the country during that period, the medical school would have collapsed.

“You cannot train a doctor without a pathologist and if I had left the country during that period the medical school would have closed,” he said.

He said in the area of forensic pathology, the country has been relying on expatriates since 1980 with a majority of them coming from Cuba.
He is the Chief Government pathologist with the Public Health Laboratories under the Ministry of Health and Child Care. He is also a lecturer in the Department of Pathology with the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.