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(NEWZIMBABWE) Kereke in 'liar' rant against minister

Kereke in 'liar' rant against minister
29/05/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

HEALTH Minister Henry Madzorera has been branded a “liar” by Munyaradzi Kereke, the quarrelsome founder of the Rockfoundation Medical Centre and former adviser to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Kereke’s outburst is an escalation of a bitter row with the minister, whom he accuses of sabotaging his hospital on Norfolk Road in Harare, to protect the commercial interests of his own clinic nearby.

The multi-million dollar Rockfoundation Medical Centre and Hospital, claimed Kereke on May 11, was being denied approval to offer its services to the public because the minister has for four years turned down invitations to come and inspect the facility.

But Madzorera told The Daily News last Friday that he was not duty-bound to visit the facility as decisions about licensing health institutions rest with professional bodies.

“Anyone in the health care industry would know that there is an animal called the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council, which deals with inspections of institutions and with any complaints relating to the conduct of doctors,” Madzorera said.

“The mother body is called the Health Professions Authority (HPA). For the minister to interfere with these institutions and their functions would be both frivolous and criminal.

“If the gentleman needs technical advice, let him contact the permanent secretary. We are here to serve, and we will respond to any query with a view to helping all Zimbabweans who are serving our people.”

On Monday, Kereke circulated a lengthy “open letter” to Madzorera to the media in which he dismisses Madzorera’s claim that he was “here to serve” as a lie.

He cited several letters he had sent the minister – including a complaint about a rogue doctor; a plea to have duty waived on medical equipment and several invitations to the minister – which had not attracted a response.

Kereke accuses Madzorera of “abrogating his public duty, as well as telling the public lies”.

“It is not true that you respond to queries that come to your office... The vilification and rejection the RMC faced and continues to face is as if as investors we constructed a brothel yet RMC Hospital is there to serve the public, saving lives and this falls under your ministry Sir,” Kereke says in the open letter.

Strangely, Kereke appears to back-off his earlier claims that Madzorera had caused his hospital not to be licenced.

He confirms that the hospital has undergone all inspections and now employs 150 people.

“Hon Minister, we are pleased to advise that the RMC’s following disciplines have all undergone all the regulatory inspections by the Medical And Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe (MDPCZ) and the Health Professions Authority (HPA) as is the norm: RMC Trauma Management; RMC Radiology Centre; RMC Pharmacy; RMC Ambulance Services; RMC Laboratory Services; RMC Dental Clinic; RMC Eye Clinic; and RMC Hospital (inpatient wing with 30 beds).”

So what is the problem? Well, Kereke just wants a visit from the minister, it turns out.

“As fellow Zimbabweans and as investors who sacrificed their own personal money to invest in the health sector,” he says, “it is our prayer that you Hon Minister sees the value in coming to see what we are doing here as a way of responding to the noble call by government for the private sector to join hands with the government in building our great country’s productive and social infrastructure.”

Labels: HENRY MADZORERA

posted by MrK @ 3:48 PM