DOCTORS in Zimbabwe are pushing for amendments to the medical affidavit to improve the justice delivery system in the event of a victim of violence seeking redress.
A medical affidavit is a sworn statement made by a medical practitioner providing information on a person’s medical condition or treatment, often used in legal proceedings or for other official purposes.
The doctors said the medical affidavit used in Zimbabwe had limitations.
Speaking at a workshop organised by the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) on Friday, the organisation’s executive director Calvin Fambirai said despite well-documented patterns of all forms of violence, including gender-based violence, sexual assault, trauma and common assault, perpetrators of these crimes often evade justice due to lack of evidence.
The meeting brought together officials from the Health and Child Care ministry, Zimbabwe Human Right Commission, Parliament, Judicial Service Commission, Zimbabwe Red Cross Association, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association, magistrates, lawyers, doctors, law-based civic society organisations and psychiatrists.
“Others may face harsh sentences due to incorrectly interpreting medical language on the medical affidavit,” Fambirai said.
“Health professionals play a pivotal role in documenting trauma and assault cases, as medical services are often the first point of contact for survivors. Proper medical documentation, including medical affidavits, is essential for ensuring accountability, providing survivors with access to psychosocial care and facilitating legal redress.”
The medical doctors said the medical affidavit was silent on psychological trauma which a victim of violence may suffer, adding that there was limited training among health professionals on how to fill in the medical affidavit.
- Govt dangles US$90 incentive for maize
- Grain farmers priced out of fields
- Proposed raids on grain farmers raises stink
- Maize farmers plead for a 50% USD payment
Keep Reading
They also lamented that police officers do not accept medical affidavits filled in by private medical practitioners and that they lacked the ability to interpret medical jargon used in the legal profession, which leads to miscarriage of justice.
“The current medical affidavit states that only the police can request a medical affidavit, but that is wrong because even insurance companies can request medical affidavits. So that has to change,” ZADHR medical co-ordinator Norman Matara said.
“It is also wrong that only a government doctor can fill in the medical affidavit, yet any registered medical professional should fill it in. The other limitation is that only a name is written on the medical affidavit; there is no section for date of birth or ID number for identification.”
He added that there was no segment to state what other investigations were done on a patient like an X-ray.
Representing the Judicial Service Commission, chief magistrate Vongai Guwuriro said any registered medical professional could fill in a medical affidavit and depose it with the courts.
She said they would continue urging the police not reject medical affidavits filled in by private medical doctors.
Matara emphasised that the preference of government doctors in filling medical affidavits got institutionalised because they are more readily available than private practitioners.
Doctors complained of the time they take at the courts to elaborate the medical affidavits they would have deposed. Guwuriro said there was need for medical affidavits to be thorough, giving all the information the courts required, which would obviate the need for medical professionals' presence in court.
“We are looking at other jurisdictions, looking at how we can improve our medical affidavits. We also want to see a section that talks about the psychological effect of the violence suffered by a patient. We need to have that information,” the chief magistrate said.
She added that they wanted medical officers to specify procedures, give a detailed observation, like size and depth, adding that they hoped that a section that covered those areas would be included in the new medical affidavit, as well as how a violation happened.
Tinashe Mhlanga from the Zimbabwe Psychiatrists Association said that having mental illness is not equal to mental incapacitation, adding that the bipolar affective disorder illness was episodic, hence, the proposed medical affidavit should include a section for comments.
“At mental institutions, inmates take medication under the watchful eyes of the guards. They get better, get discharged from such institutions and after two weeks, they relapse because there is no one to watch them taking their medication,” he said.
Mhlanga said before being asked to write a psychiatric affidavit for a random patient, they needed the history of the patient.
“Usually psychiatrists refuse to write psychiatric affidavits because they don’t want to stand in a court to defend a case they don’t have a history of,” Mhlanga was said.
Another issue raised was that there is a need to cut the distance between the casualty/resuscitation units at hospitals and police posts, particularly because doctors manning the casualty/resuscitation department do not have to walk long distances to the police post to have the medical affidavit stamped.
The other challenge raised was the interpretation of the medical jargon, with magistrates, lawyers and prosecutors often struggling to interpret medical language, affecting sentencing outcomes and case proceedings.
Salvator Mapunda, a forensic pathologist with ZADHR, urged doctors to avoid raising medical affidavits without a request, use layman’s language in medical affidavits which does not cause problems for the courts, obtain informed consent and to avoid sequencing injuries in medical affidavits.
Matara presented a model medical affidavit which, after discussion, it was agreed that adjustments will be made before its presentation to the Health and Child Care ministry in the next two weeks for forwarding to the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs ministry.
