At the end of the day, a doctor is as good as the equipment and machinery available to them, in the discharge of their work, which invariably is delicate and life-saving. The Second Republic is fully aware of this area of great concern and need, and will be making substantial provisions towards meeting this pressing need, starting with this coming budget. This is especially important as we scale up healthcare giving in the direction of greater specialisation.
As I write, more and more rural health facilities are being built across the country through Devolution Funds. This programme will continue until every village and community is within reach of a medical facility, for basic health provisioning. Alongside this thrust, we continue to invest in district hospitals until the goal of a fully functional hospital for each district is met.
I also wish to see more and more of mobile healthcare services reaching remote communities. We have done that in the past, allowing mobile clinics manned by specialist doctors to reach such historically disadvantaged communities for superior care. As in other sectors, no person and no community should be left behind.
The four young doctors I met last week shared their vision to start a training programme on cleft lip and cleft palate surgery for both local medical officers and for those drawn from sister African countries. I share this important vision, which Government will support.
We must strive to become a regional centre of excellence when it comes to specialised training and care. Time must come when Zimbabwe becomes the preferred destination for medical tourism. This calls for even bigger, focused quality investments in manpower, machinery, medicines and facilities.
There is growing demand for land on which to set up medical facilities. This demand has been coming especially from our citizens in the Diaspora wishing to invest back home. They want land on which to set up all sorts of facilities, including those for research and further specialised training. It is their own way of giving back to our society.
Accordingly, I am directing Government to identify suitable land across the country on which to develop medical parks. Land should be free to those wishing to set up shop or training facilities. Only that way can we attract more investments in the medical sector.
Zimbabwe is a Pan-African country. Our focus is outward, towards sister African countries on our continent. These countries stood by us during our days of struggle. We must give back; we must stand by our continent, starting with our immediate region, SADC.
It is this belief and conviction which motivated us to share vaccines with our neighbours at the height of Covid-19 pandemic; indeed, the same conviction which motivated us to donate medical oxygen and personal protection equipment, PPEs, once we developed capacity to manufacture both.
We stand ready to share our facilities with our brothers and sisters from countries within our neighbourhood, particularly from communities which are contiguous to us. This is our spirit of HUNHU, UBUNTU, which must be at the heart of our policies as an African country, born of African struggles.
Of course, our capacity to extend our helping hand to the rest of Africa could be enhanced if we did not have illegal sanctions that have become such an undeserved and prolonged millstone. Still, we will do our best, including sharing expertise and personnel with other African countries. Africa is more deserving of our expertise than old Western nations to which we continue to lose thousands of experts through medical brain drain. Together, collaboratively, we can do more for our continent.
World Health Organisation, WHO, says Africa bears more than 24 percent of the global burden of disease, yet it has access to only 3 percent of global health workers, and less than 1 percent of the world’s financial resources. Because of this dire state of affairs, about 44 percent of WHO member states, mostly from Africa, have less than one doctor per 1 000 population. Yet the medical brain drain still plays out in such dire circumstances of need on our continent!
Our Nation has to applaud and celebrate our four doctors for living true to the Hippocratic Oath, and for raising Zimbabwe’s flag high through deeds which are clearly Pan-African. Thank you Zimbabwe Medical Team!
By President Emmerson Mnangagwa for the Sunday Mail
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