World Health Day: Zimbabwean hospitals face drug shortages

World
Europe

02:30

Sunday marks World Health Day and this year's theme is universal health access. Millions of people around the world still have little or no access to good healthcare. In Zimbabwe, the health system is under strain due to a severe shortage of drugs. Farai Mwakutuya reports from Harare.

Zimbabwe's health service is made up primary care clinics which feed into district hospitals and provincial hospitals and then national referral facilities which are supposed to be the apex of the health system.

However, all is not well there.

DR DAVID CHIMUKA SURGEON "In all these tertiary hospitals we are lacking essential drugs to treat people and also our equipment has become old and some of it is irreparable."

To make matters worse the sector has suffered a massive flight of skills over the last decade and a half which has left hospitals understaffed.

FARAI MWAKUTUYA HARARE, ZIMBABWE "People who come to government hospitals like the one behind me, Parirenyatwa, the largest public facility, have to wait hours for basic consultation and sometimes days and even weeks for specialist care."

Junior doctors have gone on strike and senior consultants have demonstrated to get governments commitment to improve the situation, but the impact has been short-lived.

DR SACRIFICE CHIRISA SECRETARY GENERAL, ZIMBABWE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION "When these promises are made, obviously some trickles do come in some movement is seen, but it's not sustainable in the long term. You might see some movement a week or two after the engagement but after some time we go back to the normal things."

Government blames a foreign currency crisis for the drug and equipment shortages. But doctors say the little that is available should be allocated transparently and prioritise the critical health sector. Failure to do so could lead to more frustration.

DR DAVID CHIMUKA SURGEON "We are not going to work, we are not doing our job. We were born doctors so we feel this is our profession and so we have to do our work properly in these hospitals."

As long as they can't treatable ailments and avoidable deaths remain an ever-present risk and access to quality healthcare a far off dream.

FM, CGTN, H, Z.