By Michael Gwarisa
Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health and Child Care has established a new Directorate of Medical Services as part of a restructuring exercise aimed at strengthening the coordination and delivery of specialist, emergency and surgical services.
Speaking at the Surgical Society of Zimbabwe Annual Conference, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Maunganidze, said the ministry had secured approval for a new organisational structure that includes the dedicated medical services directorate under the curative services branch.
The new structure also provides for dedicated posts responsible for emergency services and coordination of the National Surgical, Obstetric and Anaesthesia Plan, placing specialist and emergency care under a more defined institutional framework.
“Amongst this is the establishment of a directorate specifically for medical services which falls under the curative branch and within this are dedicated posts for emergency services and coordination of the national surgical obstetric and anaesthesia plan,” Dr Maunganidze said.
He said the changes were significant for Zimbabwe’s surgical fraternity because they would provide a stronger platform for coordinating medical and specialist services while strengthening emergency care.
“The creation of this medical services directorate which will obviously be headed by someone who has experience in managing medical services and in addition the emergency services and the national surgical obstetric and anaesthesia plan create opportunities for various players in this room to take surgery far,” he said.
The restructuring comes as Zimbabwe seeks to improve access to specialised healthcare while making better use of the expertise available within the country’s medical profession.
Dr Maunganidze, however, cautioned that the creation of new structures would only be meaningful if they resulted in improvements on the ground.
“We now need to ensure that these structures translate into action and not simply new boxes on an organisational chart but stronger coordination clearer accountability and better services for our patients,” he said.
The new directorate is expected to operate within the ministry’s broader efforts to strengthen the health system and improve access to specialist services. Dr Maunganidze said government was also working with professional bodies, educators and employers through a joint planning committee to address health workforce issues.
The committee brings together the ministry, training institutions, the Health Services Commission and regulated professional bodies, with the aim of improving planning around training, specialist output, recruitment, deployment, retention and regulation.
The move comes against a backdrop of growing demand for specialist healthcare and concerns over the distribution of skilled health professionals across the country.
Zimbabwe has expanded its specialist surgical capacity over the years, with doctors now performing advanced procedures including laparoscopic surgery, complex trauma surgery, open heart surgery and neurological interventions.
Dr Maunganidze said the country had considerable specialist knowledge, technical capability and professional commitment, but the challenge was to make these capabilities accessible to more Zimbabweans.
He also called for specialist services to be taken beyond the country’s major centres through outreach programmes that build sustainable capacity in provincial and district facilities.
According to Dr Maunganidze, outreach should not simply involve specialists travelling to peripheral facilities to perform operations and leaving. Instead, the programmes should strengthen local teams, improve referral systems and transfer skills to ensure receiving facilities are left stronger.
The new medical services structure could therefore provide a platform for better coordination between government, specialist doctors, training institutions and professional bodies as Zimbabwe seeks to expand access to specialised care.
Dr Maunganidze also linked the reforms to the government’s broader National Health Strategy for 2026 to 2030, which places universal health coverage at the centre of health policy.
He said universal health coverage should have practical meaning for surgical patients, including timely emergency surgery, appropriate care for children with surgical conditions, access to cancer surgery and protection of families from catastrophic healthcare expenditure.
For patients, the effectiveness of the new directorate will ultimately depend on whether the restructuring translates into shorter delays, better emergency response, improved specialist referrals and greater access to quality surgical care outside major hospitals.
