Private sector healthcare accepts 100% fee increase to help Zimbabweans

By Tererai Karimakwenda
11 April 2006

The government has agreed to lift a freeze on private health care fees backdated to April 1. Charges will double as general practitioners' consultation fees go up 100 percent. Zimbabweans reeling from increases in bread prices and 1000% inflation rates may think this is unjustified, but private practitioners said they were seeking an increase of 240% in order for private healthcare to remain viable. Dr. Douglas Gwatidzo, chairman of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR,) said they reached a compromise that would require practitioners to operate on a shoe string budget and have no room for improvements. He said in an environment with rampant inflation they needed to strike a balance between reality and the needs of private service providers. So they did this to help Zimbabweans on one hand, and on the other allow practitioners to stay in business.

Dr Gwatidzo explained that private institutions operate with their own funds and resources and are not subsidised by the government. Asked whether this meant private healthcare would deteriorate the same way that the public sector has he said that would not happen. He said: “We will meet our standards as they are but there will be no room for improvements.” The increase will affect the few Zimbabweans who are still able to afford private healthcare and increase the numbers who seek traditional remedies. More expecting mothers are saying they will stay home to give birth.

Government hospitals and clinics are plagued by a shortage of supplies and qualified staff due to a foreign currency shortage and a mass exodus of doctors and nurses seeking better opportunities. The private sector is viewed as the only provider of quality healthcare in the country. The minister of health Dr Parirenyatwa had ordered a freeze on private fees earlier this month pending an investigation into the issues. Health experts had feared a collapse similar to that of government institutions. According to The Herald report Minister Parirenyatwa said: "I do not want to kill the private sector. I want it to thrive so that it can complement the public health sector." Dr Gwatidzo said the government should focus on improving the public sector since it was almost non-functional.