THE Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) has implored President Emmerson Mnangagwa to urgently appoint a minister of Health and Substantive Secretary of Health.
By Michael Gwarisa
CWGH Executive Director, Mr Itai Rusike said the health ministry can not continue to run on auto pilot.
Without a Minister of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) and a substantive Secretary for Health, surely the health ministry is on auto-pilot drive. And the situation on the ground is telling. That there is no Minister of Health to lead from the front to deal with the crippling industrial action by health care workers and the spike in COVID-19 cases.
“The Permanent Secretary is also in an acting capacity with limited authority to decisively deal with issues or make critical decisions for over a month, is a huge indictment on the country’s leadership. The country’s health workforce — including nurses — have been on strike for several weeks now citing poor working conditions, low remuneration and absence of tools of trade including personal protective equipment (PPEs) to safeguard themselves against the infectious Covid-19 disease.”
He added that there has not been any sign of movement regarding making these appointments this was weighing down efforts to resuscitate the health sector as well as curb the COVID-19 pandemic.
“CWGH feels that there has not been much effort put towards addressing health workers’ grievances by the responsible authorities. Unfortunately and sadly, the situation is getting out of hand as many people who were not supposed to die are passing on because health workers are on strike while several pregnant women are losing their lives, and or their babies in public health institutions because there are no health workers to assist them.
“It is not only sad but also disheartening that the few committed health workers in the public health institutions continue to be infected with Covid-19 because they do not have PPEs. Sending health workers to the frontline to manage or treat Covid-19 patients without PPEs is not only callous but also the highest level of irresponsibility by the authorities.”
He also called upon the President to urgently intervene to ensure a speedy, fair and impartial procedure in resolving the current health crisis to avoid further loss of lives, a situation which has further been worsened by the current Covid-19 pandemic, which is already spiraling out of control.
“This crisis has been worsened by sacking of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Central Hospitals and the uncertainty of most senior directors at the ministry’s headquarters, which has caused serious anxiety among the workers. Surely, there is urgent need to restore confidence and a sense of security in the health workers and to stop further disruption of operations in the sector especially now when cases of Covid-19 continue to rise.”
