Health Minister Obadiah Moyo said that the government has commenced a programme of rehabilitation of public hospitals in partnership with private players.
He said that the programme is being implemented under the 2015 Joint Ventures Act, and will initially target central hospitals, then move down to provincial and district hospitals. Said Moyo:
We want to make sure that the healthcare facilities are of a very high level, providing first class service. We want to make sure that our customers access affordable services, which is also within easy rich so we want to make sure that all the facilities are all rehabilitated.
Our facilities had gone for a long time without undergoing major rehabilitation and at the same time, we also need to replenish all the institutions with medicine, surgical sundries so that they make sense.
Moyo, who was in charge of Chitungwiza Central Hospital before he was appointed Minister of Health, revealed that the hospital has already been running a joint venture partnership. He said:
Chitungwiza Central Hospital has already been running that type of joint venture partnership (JVP) and that is what has made the hospital survive but obviously, we also realised that we also have to improve the working arrangement with our partners.
All the country’s public health institutions are in a sorry state due to years of neglect.
Strikes by doctors have become common, as they protest against poor remuneration and shortage of medicines and various sundries.
The country’s elite shuns local hospitals in favour of South Africa and the Far East.