Harare, (New Ziana)- The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care has expressed concern about the state of affairs at Parirenyatwa Hospital, where critical equipment has not been working for years, limiting its ability to provide adequate cancer treatment.
The legislators, who toured the hospital’s cancer treatment unit, discovered that frequent equipment breakdowns and inadequate resources for diagnosis and treatment are severely limiting its ability to provide adequate cancer treatment.
The Committee blamed the hospital authorities for not being innovative in changing the current poor health service delivery at the institution.
The committee chair, who is also Hwange Central legislator Daniel Molokele, said the situation at Parirenyatwa Hospital was unacceptable.
“The responsibility of the Committee is to make sure that we do not accept what is there, especially the fact that diagnostic machines can be offline for many years while at the same time, patients need access to those services.
“Our responsibility is to make sure that access to health care services especially for cancer must not be a preserve for a few Zimbabweans,” he said.
He challenged Parirenyatwa Hospital management to think outside the box and not wait for the government to avail funds for repairs.
“You cannot complain for 15 years while no service is provided and patients are dying. Do not accept this. Be innovative,” he said.
Molokele said the Committee would push for legislation that allows state hospitals to be autonomous.
“As a Portfolio Committee, we think the real problem is not money; its policy and legal framework around the administration of these institutions, institutions such as Parirenyatwa getting autonomy in terms of ability to provide services at a fee. We are going to push for a legal and policy framework so that people access health care here at Parirenyatwa,” he said.
Parirenyatwa Hospital acting chief medical officer Dr Tsitsi Magure said running the institution in the absence of resources was no easy task.
“We try our best but one can only do so much with what we have,” she said.
New Ziana
