Mugabe should issue a statement on doctors-MP says

If this was happening in some countries, we would be having not a Ministerial Statement but a Presidential Statement.  We had people being killed in Orlando and immediately, we were having the State House issuing a statement.  The President needs to step up and say this is what is going to happen tomorrow.  I am not interested in the Minister of Health anymore.  The fact that we have gone this far without a statement being issued by him, speaks a lot about what he is doing.  What is the President saying in this particular instance?

I think sometimes we are so used to suffering so much as Zimbabweans that when things happen, we just look and watch and we say ooh so today it is about medical aid, tomorrow there is no water and tomorrow there will be no electricity.  We will not have food and that is totally unacceptable.  I support my colleagues – in conclusion, on some of the things we need to deal with when we have dealt with the crisis on medical aid.

The issue of the expense associated with treatment.  As I speak Mr. Speaker – I have said this before in this House – issues to do with mental illness, any form of depression and anxiety are not covered in your medical aid.  So, if you are having problems with depression or something like that, they give you a certain amount of money for your treatment.  I am speaking from experience.  For the reason that I could not get that treatment, I went to India.  If you compare the amount of money that I had to pay in India and what I had to pay here, it is ridiculous.  To see a doctor I only paid US$5 and to get my medication I had to pay – it is unfortunate that Hon. Chimedza is not here, at one time when I came back here and he was going to India, I asked him to buy medication for me.  He just spent US$20 and paid for medication that I was taking from January up to December.  In this country it is impossible to get any of that stuff.  Sometimes we are now asking people to go to India to get treatment not as a luxury but because I am able to afford treatment there more than I can here.  I pay for my air ticket and go and do all those things – [AN HON. MEMBER: Vanoitorepi mari yekuenda kuIndia?] – all I am saying is that let us do a comparison.

We cannot have other countries charging certain amounts of money and we are asking for large amounts of money.   Mr. Speaker Sir, I am bringing a motion around mental illness and depression and I will deal with it in direct forms.  I could not resist raising the issues around the cost of getting medical treatment in this country as compared to other countries.  It is ridiculous and does not make sense.  However, I support the motion that has been brought, but like I am saying, unlike my other colleagues who think we should have a Ministerial Statement, I am not interested in that, can we have the President’s comment on this.  Can Cabinet give us a Statement on what is going on because we are losing lives every minute as we speak in this House?  I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.

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