Health ministry gears up to improve service delivery
Story by Abigirl Tembo, Health Editor
PARASTATALS under the Ministry of Health and Child Care have pledged to play their role in the attainment of universal health coverage.
This comes after the ministry convened a meeting with the board of chairpersons and chief executive officers of various parastatals under its purview to come up with ways of further strengthening Zimbabwe’s healthcare system.
The topical issue was strengthening collaboration and achieving the ministry’s vision as outlined in the National Development Strategy One.
The parastatals highlighted what has been achieved so far with regard to universal health coverage.
“As National Aids Council, a parastatal under the ministry of health, we are tasked with the role of making sure that HIV programmes are well coordinated across the country, but also our vision is to end AIDS. We want to make sure that new infections are reduced, those who are already on treatment continue accessing ARVs. We want to make sure that HIV response is everyone’s business. We have realised that other conditions are associated with HIV, these are cancer and NCDs, we are making sure that we also make inroads in issues of drug addiction because these are associated with HIV,” said National Aids Council monitoring and evaluation director, Amon Mpofu.
Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe board chairperson, Dr Misheck Chiware said, “Drug abuse is usually caused by people who bring drugs in the country and sell them on the streets. As far as MCAZ is concerned, we are mandated to register every drug which comes into the country and goes through a test to make sure its effective and safe.
“We stand at very high esteem as we get a lot of people and organisations both from Zimbabwe and from outside the country who apply to do research under our auspices and the importance of our research is such that a number of our researchers have been winning prizes all over the world. Zimbabwe is very reputable when it comes to clinical research.”
The Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Douglas Mombeshora emphasised the importance of a collaborative approach to achieve better health outcomes for Zimbabwe.
“Parastatals exist to assist the current ministry, so we as the ministry of health are therefore happy with all the work which is being done by the parastatals. Therefore, the coordination that will exist should assist in our vison as encapsulated in the National development Strategy of the country,” he said.
The parastatals which include the National Pharmaceuticals Company, Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council, National AIDS Council and the Health Professions Authority also signed their performance contracts where they outlined their organisations’ goals and thrust towards achieving universal health coverage.
