Hiking of medical fees unacceptable

IT is shocking and unacceptable that the government has decided to increase healthcare services fees at a time the generality of the population is wallowing in poverty and can hardly pay for medical bills.

IT is shocking and unacceptable that the government has decided to increase healthcare services fees at a time the generality of the population is wallowing in poverty and can hardly pay for medical bills.

In terms of General Notice 159 of 2014 gazetted on Friday 23 May 2014, the Health and Child Care ministry approved increases in consultation, private hospital and associated unit fees.

The effect of the increment is to double the cost of healthcare services fees in the private sector. This is highly unacceptable as it will hamper access to healthcare services for a majority of Zimbabweans who are already struggling to make ends meet.

The government is failing to put in place measures to revitalise the crumbling healthcare system and this has had grave consequences on ordinary Zimbabweans.

Most Zimbabweans cannot afford the new gazetted fees. This is worsened by the fact that the new fees are not matched by any general increase in income for workers. People suffering from chronic diseases such as kidney failure and cancer will require an estimated $300 per week to access services.

People without health insurance, those suffering from chronic illnesses, the elderly and women, will be the worst affected.

Invariably, the cost will be passed onto the patients whose lives and health are placed in further jeopardy by this arbitrary increase.

This decision should be reversed as it will worsen already existing inequities in access to healthcare and widen the gap between private and public health systems.

The government should take measures to expand access to equitable and universal health services by adopting measures that will make the healthcare system accessible to everyone, not only the people with money.

It must be borne in the mind that Zimbabwe is in a new constitutional dispensation. Section 76 of the Constitution guarantees the right to quality and affordable healthcare services.

Further, every Zimbabwean has the right to attain the highest standard of health in terms of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both treaties which the Zimbabwean government is a State party to.

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