Govt to construct a hospital in Esigodini - Dr Parirenyatwa

THE newly appointed Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr David Parirenyatwa, yesterday said his ministry would urgently address the pertinent issue of low salaries and poor incentives for staff as well as attracting more specialised personnel to improve the country's health delivery system.

In an interview, Dr Parirenyatwa said in an effort to address the challenges that hamper effective health service delivery, his ministry would also prioritise the problem of drug shortages, poor infrastructure and the strengthening of child immunisation programmes to reduce child mortality rate and improving maternal health in line with the National Health and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) number four and five.

"We have had a big challenge of our staff, particularly doctors and those in specialised fields such as midwives leaving the country for greener pastures.

"As Government we want to address that problem by addressing the issue of low salaries and incentives so that we are able to retain our human resources as well as attract those in the Diaspora as much as we can. We want to offer quality health care and that means we need to have a trained, skilled and well motivated workforce, which is a critical component required for efficiency in terms of health service delivery," he said.

The shortage of midwives has accounted for high maternal mortality ratio in the country whose rate presently stands at 960 deaths for every 100 000 live births.

Dr Parirenyatwa said hospitals have in the past been struggling to offer adequate service delivery because of poor funding from Treasury in the previous inclusive Government.

He said the new Government would strive to address the problems in line with the promises made by Zanu-PF before the elections.

Dr Parirenyatwa expressed concern over the poor state of Government hospitals and said he would lobby for funding.

"We have a big challenge of infrastructure at hospitals, which has resulted in our people going to other countries to seek medical attention.

"We want to transform Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, which is the country's biggest health institution, into a state of the art medical centre. We don't have proper provincial hospitals in Gwanda, Lupane and Bindura and we will look into the issue of refurbishing their infrastructure so that they meet modern standards," said Dr Parirenyatwa.

He said plans were also underway to build a district hospital in Esigodini.

"We intend to construct a hospital in Esigodini and land has since been made available and once we secure funds, we will immediately start the project. We have also noted that people in the rural areas suffer the most inequity in terms of access to quality health care with some travelling long distances to access health facilities hence we want to construct more clinics," said Dr Parirenyatwa.

The Minister said the Government would also ensure a constant supply of drugs throughout the country's hospitals and strengthening immunisation programmes as part of child care.

"It remains our priority to prevent new HIV infections as well as increasing access to antiretroviral drugs to those already infected," said Dr Parirenyatwa.

He said his ministry would work with that of Environment, Water and Climate to ensure safe potable water to avoid outbreak of diseases.

"My ministry will work in harmony with other ministries particularly that of Environment, Water and Climate so that our people have access to safe potable water to avoid the outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera," said Dr Parirenyatwa.