The doctor at the Parirenyatwa hospital shakes his head in despair as he issues his diagnosis of Zimbabwe’s health service: ”The system has literally collapsed and we are losing lives unnecessarily.”
Once renowned throughout Southern Africa for its standards of treatment, the collapse of the health service has mirrored the financial crisis in Zimbabwe.
A seven-year recession which led to inflation passing the 1 000% mark last year means state hospitals lack the means to pay for even the most basic drugs such as anti-inflammatory painkillers and pills to battle hypertension.
”It’s so painful when you have to tell a patient there is nothing more you can do to help them even though they are in agony,” said the doctor at the Parirenyatwa in Harare, the country’s biggest hospital.
”We often resort to bush medicine where we do trial and error and use combinations of the few drugs that are available to bring temporary relief to the patients,” he added on condition of anonymity.
The major state hospitals have no functioning radiotherapy machine and rely on donations from churches for chemotherapy drugs. Syringes and latex gloves are also in short supply.
All health centres have been hit by an exodus of staff including specialist doctors, pharmacists and nurses to countries such as Australia, Britain and neighbouring South Africa.
The situation deteriorated further last week when doctors at state hospitals downed their tools, the culmination of a long-simmering pay dispute. The strike has left patients stranded, with nurses and government consultants attending to emergencies only.
The industrial action began three weeks ago when junior doctors went on a go-slow demanding an increase in their salaries from the current Z$56 000 ($224).
They also want the government to up a car allowance loan from Z$700 000 to Z$2,5-million.
Another doctor working at Harare Central Hospital said morale was at rock bottom.
”Gone are the days when you simply stretched your hand and you had all the tools you need for the job at the click of a finger,” he said.
”You are supposed to smile at patients but the work environment and the conditions of service are depressing.”
A regular slot on television features ”Stories that break the heart” and shows people suffering from various illnesses that cannot be cured at home, appealing for funds for treatment abroad.
The cost is particularly prohibitive in a country reeling under a serious foreign exchange crunch and only a lucky few get help in time.
One recent episode featured three-year-old cancer sufferer Dexter Chipunza, sent home from hospital with one of his eyes protruding and a lump that had blocked his nostrils.
”The doctors say there are no drugs for his condition at all state hospitals and the machines for radiotherapy are down. I am appealing to wellwishers to help me raise money to take my son to South Africa for urgent treatment,” said his distraught mother Enia.
Dexter died at home three weeks later as donations were still trickling in.
Doctors say they are not to blame, insisting they had only embarked on industrial action as a last resort.
”We are as concerned as everyone else about patients who are suffering as a result of the deadlock between us and government,” said Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, president of the Hospital Doctors Association.
”The majority of us have no cars to attend to emergencies, we can hardly afford basic groceries. All we are asking for is a salary that will make coming to work worthwhile.
”The current junior doctor’s salary can only buy a few kilograms of meat and these are the same grievances we put forward when we went on strike last year.”
President Robert Mugabe conceded last month that the health sector ”continues to face several challenges, which include the shortage of essential drugs and critical equipment as well as the unending brain drain”.
The government would soon compel medical school graduates to serve in state health centres for a period equal to the duration of their training, he said, while working out a package to discourage the migration of senior medics. – Sapa-AFP