NKAYI North legislator Sithembiso Nyoni (Zanu PF) has bemoaned the state of collapse of the country’s health delivery system, forcing locals to skip the border to South Africa for treatment.
Reports have emerged of locals being humiliated by health personnel, especially in South Africa, when they seek treatment in the neighbouring country.
According to Nyoni, who is also the Environment, Climate and Wildlife minister, years of underfunding is to blame for the collapse of the country’s health sector.
She, however, indicated that her government was now focused on uplifting standards in the health sector.
“Yes, we see that some of our people go to South Africa to seek medical help. Some go to get treated in Musina and some to big hospitals in South Africa,” Nyoni said during a virtual discussion organised by the Nkayi Community Parliament.
“This happens because maybe they might not be getting enough medical assistance locally. I think what must be done is for us to try to ensure that our clinics and hospitals have such medical services.”
The discussion was centred on operational challenges in the public and private health sectors in Zimbabwe.
She said there was a need for increased budgetary allocations to the health sector.
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“So this must be looked into,” she said.
“This needs to be looked into so that those who are able to pay should pay and only those from rural areas who are poor are the ones who should not pay.
“Apart from that there is a lot that needs to be addressed in our hospitals.
“We trust that our health services will be improved.”
In 2022, a video of South African medical doctor and Limpopo province Member of the Executive Committee for Health, Phophi Ramathuba, went viral as she dehumanised a Zimbabwean female patient.
The Zimbabwean patient was at the hospital awaiting surgery after she was involved in an accident when Ramathuba accused her and other immigrants of straining that country’s health delivery system.
Ramathuba said President Emmerson Mnangagwa was not funding that country’s health delivery system.
