Speaking to journalists in Harare yesterday, Rusike called on government to introduce requisite legal provisions that would cushioned citizens against paying user fees especially when donors would have availed and pledged donations.
“The Constitution is progressive on the provision of quality and good health services for all citizens,” said Rusike.
“However, (it) should be backed by the legal provisions that ensure that pregnant women, sick people such as children under five and the elderly have access to health care services for free,” he added.
Rusike urged government to invest in the health delivery system and ensure that its citizens’ health needs were prioritised.
“Government should use the bottom up approach in improving the quality of health care delivery and it should invest in simple tasks such as boosting the scarce numbers of community health workers,” said Rusike.
“Zimbabwe has the potential to improve in the provision of good health services but until the country recognises and invests in village health workers, the country’s health indicators will remain below the targeted benchmarks,” he added.
He said it was important to draw lessons from other countries which, despite being affected by internal strife, had made tremendous progress in reducing maternal mortality.
He cited Rwanda as an example and said the country had close to 60,
000 health care workers for its citizens estimated to be around 11, 5 million.
He urged government to appreciate the role of health workers and invest in them to improve service provision.
Rusike emphasised the need to come up with legal provisions that cushioned patients against paying user fees especially for pregnant mothers, the elderly and children aged five and below.
The Project Director for Save the Children International, Alice Mazarura, said her organisation had established that few health centres were still charging user fees especially for pregnant mothers.
“Some of those that are still doing it are charging these user fees because of administrative challenges,” said Mazarura.
She said it was good to note that most health institutions were implementing government policies and trying all means possible to ensure that they adhered to provisions that promoted access to health for all including the marginalised communities.
Post published in: News