Zimbabwe: Rights Doctors Push for Commission of Inquiry Into Zimbabwe’s Collapsing Public Health Sector

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) has urged President Emmerson Mnangagwa to institute a Commission of Inquiry on the state of the health sector.
This follows Mnangagwa’s visits to Parirenyatwa and Sally Mugabe Hospitals on Monday.
There has been an uproar over the dilapidated state of public hospitals where there is a lack of basic medicines, malfunctioning equipment and low morale among the healthcare professionals.
Doctors said Mnangagwa has had an opportunity to have a first-hand account of the situation and should institute an inquiry in a bid to address the challenges.
“ZADHR believes that the visit provided President Mnangagwa with an opportunity to appreciate, first-hand, the state of public health services delivery system in Zimbabwe, which is generally plagued by dilapidated infrastructure, shortages of drugs and consumables and demoralised human resources.
“ZADHR also takes this opportunity to urge President Mnangagwa to institute a Commission of Inquiry on the state of the health sector,” said Doctors in a statement.
According to ZADHR, the Commission of Inquiry should be mandated to enquire into the situation of health service provision by government and its agencies with a view to ensuring service delivery that responds to the obligations created by the Constitution, which under section 76 guarantees the right to health care.
In such an enquiry, the Commission of Inquiry may need to scrutinise the current health financing mechanisms in Zimbabwe and the challenges and opportunities.
Zimbabwe’s performance in relation to the Abuja Declaration commitments on health financing and the amounts raised by government using specific health-related taxes such as the “sugar tax” since their inception, and their utilisation and utility, and
“The current situation in public hospitals, with a focus on referral institutions, including staffing levels in relation to the staff establishment for these institutions and the poor remuneration of all medical practitioners and addressing the massive exodus in this critical sector.
“The process must, therefore, be robust with full engagement of public health institutions, health workers, communities and other relevant stakeholders on the state of affairs.
“Citizens must also be allowed to give evidence of their actual experiences of the health sector,” doctors said.
Recently, nurses also issued a statement urging the government to immediately intervene as the situation has already gotten out of hand.
Nurses said they are working under impossible conditions.
“As nurses, we are working under impossible conditions. We are forced to improvise daily just to preserve life. But we cannot continue like this. The system has failed, and the suffering is unbearable.
“We call on the government of Zimbabwe to urgently prioritise the health sector. Equip hospitals. Support nurses. Save lives. This situation must be addressed without delay,” nurses said.
By New Zimbabwe.