As the health care delivery crisis in Zimbabwe has reached alarming proportions, the MDC expressed solidarity with the troubled medical practitioners and the needlessly suffering and dying patients of Zimbabwe.
While leaders are jetting out daily to receive state of the art health care abroad, ordinary Zimbabweans are dying of easily curable conditions like appendicitis and diabetes in local hospitals for lack of basic medicines and consumables.
“Our highly trained health workers are spending their time worrying, working dangerously without equipment, and helplessly overseeing the death of their valued patients without the wherewithal to assist them,” MDC said.
Infinitely more lives are being lost, or permanently disabled due to conditions like cerebral palsy, etc.
“This is the scale of catastrophe confronting us, and it’scompletely preventable. It seems this government sold us a dummy when they showed us tonnes of containers purportedly full of medicines and consumables end of 2018. Now we know that was a hoax, because the medicines and consumables situation is worse now than it ever was.”
The MDC called upon the “military government” to take the lives of Zimbabweans seriously and prioritise health care. It added that the buck stops with the President Mnangagwa.
It said Zimbabwe can’t be open for business if curable diseases are decimating the workforce hence financing health care must therefore be priority number one on the government’s agenda.
“Here is some free advice to this failed government: The 2% transaction tax that government is collecting must go to healthcare in total. In addition, portions of other existing taxes like toll gate fees, carbon tax, vehicle license fees, tax on tobacco & alcohol, etc, must immediately be channeled to healthcare. This will immediately take care of this serious headache and the nation can begin to look at other areas of development.
The MDC said the call for dialogue has already been made, and the crisis magnifies the urgency of dialogue to resolve national issues.
“Apart from taking good care of our citizens, Zimbabwe has the potential to be a regional centre of excellence in healthcare. This requires serious political will, commitment, and a SMART vision. A healthy nation is a productive nation.”
