THE Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care, John Mangwiro has called on stakeholders in the health sector to be united and cooperate for the good of the patients.
Speaking to ZBC News Online on the sidelines of the Parliamentary Committee on Health tour of Harare and Parirenyatwa hospitals this Tuesday, the Deputy Minister emphasised on the need to put to an end the tug of war which exists between the doctors, nurse, and management to ensure all their commitment is on giving the best health care to patients.
“The most important thing we should be concerned about is the welfare of patients, let’s all come together to make sure Zimbabwe gets the best maximum benefits from us. Let’s also focus on doing our best with what we have,” said the Deputy Minister.
He said all stakeholders in the health sector should be considerate
“We have to put our emotions aside, let’s use our hearts. This fact-finding mission has brought out a lot of factors. It has opened our eyes,” said Minister MangwiroThe Deputy Minister stressed the importance of continual dialogue between the health sector and the government.
“You have opened our eyes. Meetings like these are helpful for our country. They bring a lot of issues into the light. We are going to try our best. We need to communicate continually,” he said.
Parliamentary Committee on Health and Child Care Chairperson, Dr Ruth Labode also echoed the deputy minister’s sentiments pointing out the need to address the inhouse fights between doctors.
“What came out of this fact-finding mission is that there is in-house fighting. There is a tug of war between doctors and the management and it should be dealt with,” she said.
She recommended that the Ministry of Health and Child Care should investigate the procurement process of hospital equipment as the fact-finding mission earthed out that there seems to have been some under dealings in the procurement of hospital equipment.
“Most of the equipment at the hospital is functional. However, what is clear is that the procurement process was not clear. One year down the line some of the equipment is not working. This is a clear indication that there was a third party involved and that this machinery or equipment was not sourced from a manufacturer,” added Labode.
The Parliamentary Parliamentary Committee on health and child Care’s tour of public hospitals comes after the doctors presented a petition to them this Monday airing their grievances. The doctors’ petition was mainly centred on the poor conditions of service which exist in public hospitals.
Last year, President Mnangagwa officiated a handover ceremony of medical equipment such as pediatric and diagnostic machines sourced from India to capacitate central hospitals around the country. The equipment was bought under the accelerated purchase system targeted to refurbish Parirenyatwa, Harare Central, Chitungwiza Central, Mpilo and United Bulawayo Hospitals.
