HEALTH and Child Care minister, Dr Obadiah Moyo says in as much as the health sector is going through a rough patch, access to healthcare services for the majority of citizens has improved over the past few years.
By Michael Gwarisa
Briefing the 72nd Session Of The World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, minister Moyo said inequities and inequalities in access to health services continue to grow within and between countries because of lack of political will and less because of resources.
We are also pleased to announce that Zimbabwe launched its Health Financing Policy on 6 June last year. The main thrust of the policy is to re-orient Zimbabwe’s health system to move towards UHC. Key components of Policy include actionable financing reforms and interventions, for example earmarked taxes, including 10% on mobile data usage, of which 5% is ring-fenced for Health. The development of a National Health Insurance is also underway.
“The Government is scaling up access to health services and in that regard has introduced user fee exemptions for hospital level services for under-fives, pregnant women, the elderly and the indigent, demographic groups which are prescribed under both the social protection policy and the Health financing policy,” said minister Moyo.
He added that government had established four health posts in front runner districts and government has plans to build ten additional Health Posts in each of our 63 districts focusing on remote areas.
“Additional Community Health Workers have been trained and Primary Care nurses have been identified for the posts. In some areas, communities have come together and have built up Health Posts through their own resources, thus increasing access to care.
“Primary Health Care is vital for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and is integral for Universal Health Coverage. In that regard, we wish to congratulate the Government of Kazakhstan for successfully hosting the Global Conference on Primary Health Care, and welcome the Astana Declaration.”
He also said high prices and shortages of medicines remain severe threats for health systems and, in that regard there is need for mechanisms that ensure fair pricing of all medicines, including cancer medicines.
“Financing mechanisms are important pillars for UHC both at domestic levels and international fora. Zimbabwe is committed to health financing, and will co-sponsor a side event on the Global Fund Sixth Replenishment in partnership with Botswana, the Kingdom of Eswatini and France.
“We are concerned that non-communicable diseases remain an area that is seriously underfunded. In that regard, we call for less earmarked financial resources in general, and in particular we call for the significant scaling up of resources for underfunded areas.”
Meanwhile, the minister also said there still remains some neglected challenges such as snake bites which he said deserves the serious attention of all stakeholders.
“With one person dying from snake bites every four minutes, this health crisis should feature high on the global health agenda. It is indeed an indictment of us all that there is disproportionately low attention, inadequate resources and R&D going towards addressing this challenge. Another area of concern that requires our attention is the issue of Neglected Tropical Diseases.
“We also need to address the nexus between health and climate change. In March 2019, my country, as well as our neighbours, Mozambique and Malawi were affected by Tropical Cyclone Idai. We wish to thank the WHO Director General, Dr Tedros, the Country Office and the AFRO Regional Office for the assistance rendered in the aftermath of the Cyclone. Many of the countries represented here also assisted in various ways and we are grateful.”
