News / Local
Govt to send health attachés to other countries
12 Dec 2021 at 19:52hrs | Views
Government is committed to improving the expertise of its health services through financing their advanced education and is working on sending personnel to foreign countries as health attachés.
This was revealed by Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Constantino Chiwenga during his ongoing interface with stakeholders in the health sector.
An attaché is a diplomat with varying responsibilities, in the case of health envoys they will be in a certain country for their education, gathering and disseminating strategic information to be used for among other things, reverse engineering.
Reverse engineering is particularly important for Zimbabwe which is working at reducing the import bill by boosting local production - an important step towards the attainment of an upper-middle-income society by 2030 as envisaged by President Mnangagwa.
"We will also have health attachés, who will be going to foreign countries," said VP Chiwenga.
"If you want to go for an attachment, go for the attachment properly, we will make sure we will support that.
"We will sponsor you to go for a year, two or three years, to specialise in a particular area and come back to work for your country," said VP Chiwenga.
President Mnangagwa's administration is configuring the health sector towards the realisation of medical tourism and a reduction in patient exports.
An empowered workforce is seen as a prerequisite towards the attainment of high standards in the healthcare delivery system.
"The professional development of healthcare workers continue to be a priority hence programmes for manpower development leave on full pay will continue to be supported," said VP Chiwenga.
"Equally, exchange programmes and career guidance will also be explored with a view to strengthening the health service."
Celebrated specialist surgeon, Mr Noel Zulu talked of the importance of such a programme, he has trained abroad twice and to date he has conducted 6997 surgeries in his native Masvingo city.
"When you go out of the country you know where you come from, so there is always that thing at the back of your mind where you say how can I put this thing where I come from.
"Unless you are trained you will never know what to do, to get to be able to make decisions must attain a certain level of expertise," said Mr Zulu.
He also said it equips one with competence to train others back home.
This was revealed by Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Constantino Chiwenga during his ongoing interface with stakeholders in the health sector.
An attaché is a diplomat with varying responsibilities, in the case of health envoys they will be in a certain country for their education, gathering and disseminating strategic information to be used for among other things, reverse engineering.
Reverse engineering is particularly important for Zimbabwe which is working at reducing the import bill by boosting local production - an important step towards the attainment of an upper-middle-income society by 2030 as envisaged by President Mnangagwa.
"We will also have health attachés, who will be going to foreign countries," said VP Chiwenga.
"If you want to go for an attachment, go for the attachment properly, we will make sure we will support that.
"We will sponsor you to go for a year, two or three years, to specialise in a particular area and come back to work for your country," said VP Chiwenga.
An empowered workforce is seen as a prerequisite towards the attainment of high standards in the healthcare delivery system.
"The professional development of healthcare workers continue to be a priority hence programmes for manpower development leave on full pay will continue to be supported," said VP Chiwenga.
"Equally, exchange programmes and career guidance will also be explored with a view to strengthening the health service."
Celebrated specialist surgeon, Mr Noel Zulu talked of the importance of such a programme, he has trained abroad twice and to date he has conducted 6997 surgeries in his native Masvingo city.
"When you go out of the country you know where you come from, so there is always that thing at the back of your mind where you say how can I put this thing where I come from.
"Unless you are trained you will never know what to do, to get to be able to make decisions must attain a certain level of expertise," said Mr Zulu.
He also said it equips one with competence to train others back home.
Source - The Herald
