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
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Zim’s health care one of best in Sadc
Wednesday, 24 August 2011 02:00
Herald Reporters
Zimbabwe has emerged as one of the best countries in the Sadc region providing acceptable health care facilities to its people, Minister of Health and Child Welfare Henry Madzorera has said.
Speaking at the launch of the National Aids Council website in Harare recently, Minister Madzorera said few countries in Africa have Aids Councils and Sadc made reference to Zimbabwe as the leader.
"The National Aids Council is very important to us as a nation in the fight against HIV/Aids. Very few countries have a national Aids fund and this adds value to our NAC."
Minister Madzorera applauded NAC for coming up with a user friendly website, adding the organisation had taken the initiative in information dissemination.
"Information dissemination is very important in the fight against HIV and Aids as people need to reflect where we were in the beginning and where we are at the moment.
"We need to know our success and challenges as a nation. There is power in information as those who take heed of it survive hence the need to ensure that the website is widely marketed for people to be aware of it," he said.
The Minister said NAC should not only rely on the website as their main point of information dissemination, but prioritise traditional means such as dramas and the print.
"There is need to enhance other outlets of information dissemination such as dramas and print as these are easily accessible and are familiar to others who cannot access the Internet.
"For credibility and accountability, consider also putting up the accounts category in your website as people need to know how you manage resources availed to the organisation," he said.
The website, which has a home page that is updated periodically, containes a public debate forum, blog news among others was designed by a volunteer from America, Mr Tzviatko Chiderov of a British Voluntary Services Overseas organisation.
The webscite address is www.nac.org.zw
Labels: HEALTHCARE, HENRY MADZORERA
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COMMENT - This AFP article claims that the drop national HIV prevalence rate from 33% to 14.1% and lower is "attributed to government and donor-backed prevention campaigns" - which is a lie. This drop is a statistical slight of hand, caused by the switch from surveys of pregnant women in urban areas only, to surveys representative of the general population. Both survey types are using a highly sensitive single ELISA screening test, whearas in diagnosis, 2 positive elisas and 2 positive western blot tests are required before someone can be declared 'HIV positive'. If they really want to "push the rate down into single digits", all they have to do is start using a Western Blot as a confirmation test in their surveys.
See:
Estimates on HIV called too high
New data cut rates for many nations
By John Donnelly, Globe Staff | June 20, 2004
How AIDS in Africa Was Overstated
Reliance on Data From Urban Prenatal Clinics Skewed Early Projections
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 6, 2006
Zim hails success in HIV fight
by
25/09/2009 00:00:00
THE Ministry of Health on Thursday reported new progress in the fight against Aids, saying Zimbabwe’s HIV infection rate has declined to 13.7 percent of youths and adults, from an estimated 14.1 percent last year.
Health Minister Henry Madzorera said the rate was still too high, calling for concerted efforts to push the rate down into single digits.
"We have to redouble our efforts and commitment and keep the sense of hope that indeed one day we will get to the single digit prevalence," Madzorera said, according to the state-run New Ziana news agency.
The figure estimates the percentage of people aged 15 to 49 who have HIV.
Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in the world to have recorded a sharp decline in its HIV prevalence rate, down from a high of 33 percent in 1999.
The drop is attributed to government and donor-backed prevention campaigns, but also to the nation's economic collapse, which has made it more difficult for people to maintain multiple sexual partners.
The country is struggling to care for people with Aids because of severe shortages of antiretroviral drugs. About 60,000 people receive the drugs, only one-fifth of those who need them.
Madzorera said the government was exploring new strategies to fight the pandemic, including male circumcision, which has been shown to reduce infection rates among men.
Just over 1,000 men have been circumcised under a new campaign, he said. - AFP
Labels: HENRY MADZORERA, HIV/AIDS, ZIMBABWE
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Zim health minister calls on doctors to end strike
Written by Kingsley Kaswende in Harare, Zimbabwe
Friday, August 14, 2009 4:08:08 PM
THE crisis in Zimbabwe’s health sector has been renewed, with patients being turned away at government hospitals as a result of doctors who have gone on strike demanding minimum salaries of US $1,000 along with car loans.
But health minister Dr Henry Madzorera has appealed to the doctors to return to work while their conditions of service are being looked into.
In their petition to the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, the doctors contend that the salary and allowance they were receiving were not enough for their monthly needs.
Currently, they are earning salary of US $220 with an additional US $170 retention allowance from donors, bringing the total amount to US $390.
Hospital Doctors Association president Dr Brighton Chizhande said the doctors’ salaries and allowances were not enough to meet their minimum monthly requirements.
He said hospitals were making a lot of money from charging patients for needles and surgical gloves used on them.
“The association wrote to government with a proposal that government review the salaries as our economy improves, but there was no response. There has been a massive and overwhelming influx of patients at our central hospitals paying consultation fees, money for investigations, procedures and surgical operations,” Dr Chizhande said.
The inclusive government last month started paying civil servants salaries after more than five months of giving them a flat US $100 allowance.
Dr Madzorera, who is himself a medical doctor, said the Health Services Board which is responsible for employing doctors was currently in negotiations with them.
Dr Madzorera said the country was still in a state of recovery and it was premature for doctors to expect market rate salaries.
“We hope they understand we are committed to improving their welfare but it’s a process and cannot be an event,” he said.
The health sector had reached a critical stage last year when almost all hospitals were shut down as doctors demanded better working conditions.
Since the formation of the unity government in February the doctors agreed to go to work, despite not being happy with the US $100 offered to all civil servants.
Increments introduced in finance minister Tendai Biti’s mid-term budget saw their earnings rise to US $390 but they argue that this is not enough to meet their basic needs.
Last week, junior doctors went on strike and this week senior doctors also joined in.
Labels: DOCTORS, HENRY MADZORERA, STRIKE
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