Thursday, March 24, 2011

Sanctions ground hospital equipment

Sanctions ground hospital equipment
Wednesday, 23 March 2011 21:33

ABOUT three-quarters of medical equipment impor-ted from Europe and the United States is lying idle as the Government fails to secure critical spare pa-rts due to the West's illegal economic sanctions.

Chitungwiza Central Hospital chief executive officer Dr Obadiah Moyo said this at the launch of GreenCard Medical Aid Society in Harare last Fri-day.
On Monday, Vice President Joice Mujuru made similar remarks while at Chitungwiza Central Hospital, saying Government's efforts to replace obsolete eye unit equipment were being hampered by the sanctions.

Launching the second edition of the Bright Jour-ney Eye Camp's Eye (Ophthalmic) Services Programme, VP Mujuru said, "While Zimbabwe worked tirelessly to develop one of the best health delivery systems in the world during its 30-year history after independence, the illegal sanctions imposed on us by the British and their Western allies have eroded most of the facilities that we had put in place.
"The equipment in the hospitals and eye units is obsolete and in some cases unserviceable due to lack of spare parts and now needs to be replaced.
"However, our efforts to replace it are proving to be difficult because of the illegal sanctions."
She said sanctions had also resulted in the withdrawal of all funding that used to be channelled to health delivery by the donor community.

"The 20 ophthalmologists currently operating in the country can only deal with 5 000 to 6 000 cases per year against an expected target of 15 000 patie-nts a year.
"This deficit of about 10 000 is due to lack of specialised equipment."

Bright Journey Eye Camp is a programme run by specialists from China in conjunction with the De-fence and Health ministries.

They expect to undertake 500 free eye surgeries this week.
Last Friday, Chitungwiza Hospital CEO Dr Moyo said as a developing country, Zimbabwe relied a lot on imported medical equipment and consumables.
To this end, he said, Government and municipal hospitals and clinics were equipped with imports that came mainly from Europe and the US.

"The limitation that we are now facing as a country is that between 70 and 80 percent of this equipment is now lying idle due to lack of critical spare parts.
"The supplying countries are refusing to meet our requirements for the spare parts in sympathy with (their governments') illegal sanctions.

"This is leading to untold suffering and needless deaths in the country."
Turning to the new health insurance scheme, Dr Moyo applauded the private sector for coming up with innovative solutions to the sector.

"It is for this reason that today we must celebrate the birth of the GreenCard Medical Aid Society brand which is bringing in a revolutionary approach of pooling risks in a way that cuts medical insurance costs by between 40 and 50 percent," he said.

GCMAS chief executive officer Mr Thembinkosi Ndlovu said they wanted to close the gaps in the medical insurance industry where medical aid societies made profits while clients and doctors felt shortchanged.

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