Mugabe: Doctors are greedy, money lovers

Mugabe with Mnangagwa at Muchemwa’s burial

Mugabe said this Sunday afternoon to hundreds of mourners who were gathered at the National Heroes Acre to bury the late national hero Dr Felix Muchemwa.

Rtd Brig Muchemwa died in Egypt Tuesday where he was seeking medical treatment.

Mugabe said the current crop of doctors should take a leaf from the likes of the late Muchemwa, Dr Herbert Ushewokunze, Dr Muvhuti and Dr Sydney Sekeramayi, who treated liberation fighters for free.

Mugabe added that Muchemwa, as one of the first doctors who gave medical services to the liberation war fighters, had that understanding and current medical practitioners need to understand the situation the country is facing. He said the doctors should not put ‘money first’ but ‘people first’ and make ‘great sacrifices’.

His remarks come after the Zimbabwe Medical Association announced that as from the 1st of July their members won’t be accepting Medical Aid Cards because they were being asked to treat patients and yet they were not receiving any payment from the Health Insures.

“We appreciate the work of doctors; they deserve to be rewarded accordingly. However, they must also understand the limitations the government is facing.

“We are still fighting for our liberation; there are sanctions that are affecting our capacity to honour our obligations to workers. Right now as I speak there is a stand-off between our medical staff and us the government on remuneration,” said Mugabe.

He described Muchemwa as an “honest doctor, doctor of our revolution” and a humble intellectual who worked hard during the war to his last days.

“But today what do we read? A standoff between doctors and medical aids…have our doctors lost the values that used to define them? True we expect everyone, doctors included to be rewarded for services provided, but is not important for doctors to see the social issues that surround us…there are those restrictions that don’t allow our economy to run smoothly,” said Mugabe.

“We never cease to wonder what has become of the Hippocratic Oath that demands that care must nevertheless to be given to the sick even where you are being paid less. Have our doctors lost their values that used to define them?
“Values that used to define them to life and its sustenance that life is dear. Do not allow people to die. Do all you can to save life.”

Mugabe and members of his family do not use local medical hospitals, preferring to be treated Singapore where his daughter Bona gave birth recently.