Legislators unite to condemn doctors’ demand for cash from medical aid patients

Now, Zimbabwe Medical Association is an association mainly of general practitioners.  It is not a creation of an Act of Parliament; it is basically a pressure group of medical doctors mainly general practitioners.   So, when Zimbabwe Medical Association is speaking, they are not talking on behalf of all the health care givers in the country, they are speaking on behalf of a group of medical doctors.   They cannot give a statement of all the doctors in the country.  We have several categories of medical doctors who have different associations.  For example, nurses have their own nurses association; we have surgeons that have their own association.  We have dentists and opticians that have their own associations.

So, Zimbabwe Medical Association is a group of medical doctors that does not represent everybody.  Now, Mr. Speaker, the reason Premier Medical Aid Society came up with PSMI, clinics and hospitals, was because of disagreements that had existed with medical doctors who were refusing to take their medical aid cards.  So, they said to their members, instead of going to practitioners out there, you go to our clinics; that is why they have those clinics.

Now, ZIMA according to the research that I have had,  they have always refused to take medical aid cards from Premier Service Medical Aid Society.  So, the question that PSMAS is asking, is which cards are they now refusing to take because they have always been refusing to take our cards.

Mr. Speaker, there is a surgery in Mabvuku which does not take medical aid society cards, they take cash. Their consultation fee is US$5.  I went to that surgery and the owner of that surgery told me that he could go for two days without a single patient visiting his surgery because people do not have money.  The money is just not available, especially more-so now where there is no cash in the market.  Where can a person get US$60 for consultation?

Mr. Speaker Sir, in any case, here is the information that I have.  On yellow fever, if you want to travel to countries where they demand that you have yellow fever vaccination, for you to get yellow fever vaccination in Zimbabwe, you need something between US$56 and US$66.  I have a friend who travelled to Kenya last week without yellow fever vaccination.  When they got to the airport, they were asked to produce the yellow fever vaccination card which they did not have and were told to go to the clinic at the airport and get vaccinated. There was a penalty because they had gone there without yellow fever vaccination.  The yellow fever vaccination plus the penalty is US$24  in Kenya and yet in Zimbabwe, it  costs between US$56 and US$66.  A scan in Zimbabwe, according to Premier Service Medical Aid Society costs US$500.  In Kenya, it costs US$100 and in South Africa, it costs US$90.

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