Zimbabweans flocking to Zambia for medical treatment says aspiring Chamisa MP

A COLLAPSED local health system is reportedly forcing scores of Zimbabweans to seek medical treatment at well-equipped and staffed hospitals in neighbouring Zambia.

After crossing the border into Zambia, the port of call for most Zimbabweans is Mtenderi Hospital, where doctors, nurses and medicines are readily available at an affordable premium.

Aspiring Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC) Magunje Member of Parliament, Tonderayi Todd Kusemamuriwo said most villagers from his constituency shunned the few ill-equipped and under-staffed health centres, and were making arduous journeys to Zambia for medical treatment.

Speaking at the funeral of late CCC activist, Beatrice Kaliza, chairlady for Birimawe branch Ward 11 Magunje last week, Kusemamuriwo said there was urgent need to build clinics and hospitals and equip them with state-of-the-art machinery inorder to save lives.

He said Kaliza, who collapsed on her way to fetch water and later died at hospital, could have survived if local medical facilities had proper equipment and a motivated staff.

"We confidently believe her life could have been saved on time, but the absence of an ambulance could have contributed to her passing," said the aspiring CCC MP.

"The absence of a doctor, necessary equipment or medication at the local hospital could have contributed to that as well, because if those things at Karoi District Hospital were at our local rural hospital that life could have been saved.

"Daily, desperate villagers from Magunje, and indeed other areas, are travelling to Mutendere Hospital in Zambia, where there are doctors and medicines, whereas locally patients are attended to by demotivated nurses and given prescriptions but don't have the money at all to buy medication," said Kusemamuriwo.

Some villagers from Tambarika area travel 20km to the nearest clinic at Kapfunde, notwithstanding the poor road network which has few public transporters plying the routes.

The expansive Magunje constituency has two hospitals, Hurungwe Rural and mission-run Chidamoyo Hospital, and has only two clinics, one at Kapfunde and another at Mudzimu constructed by former MP and the then higher education deputy minister, Godfrey Gandawa.

Kasemamuriwo hopes to lobby for construction of more health centres in his area if elected into office.

"I am hoping to advocate and put it through responsible authorities that we get well-equipped medical facilities evenly distributed across Magunje, so that people don't have to travel the long distances they are travelling," he said.

Sourcing equipment for the already available health institutions will also be on top of Kasemamuriwo's priority list, particularly in light of the rise in chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension claiming many lives on a daily basis.