The Sunday Mail
The country’s health sector has remained one of the hallmarks of success in the post-independence era despite the prevalent challenges.
However, the sad reality is that over the years, these gains have been eroded by a host of factors, among them Government’s inability to adequately fund the sector.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Government funded up to 90 percent of the country’s health care needs.
The trends have since changed.
Patients have had to folk out large sums of money to pay for their own health care needs, a burden that many are failing to bear.
Major referral hospitals such Harare Central Hospital, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, Chitungwiza Central Hospital, Mpilo Central Hospital, Ingutsheni and United Bulawayo Hospitals are owed millions of dollars by patients who could not afford to pay upfront.
The situation has immensely contributed to the collapse of the public health care sector and it is now failing to provide quality basic services due to financial constraints.
With Government citing tight budgetary constraints, fiscal allocation to the health sector has continued to dwindle over the years.
In the 2013 National Budget, the Health and Child Care Ministry got $407 million (10 percent of the budget) with Government hospitals and health care centers being allocated $23,7 million.
In 2014, the ministry was allocated $337 million (8 percent of the budget), while actual allocation to hospitals was only $23,8 million.
However, the $23,8 million was gobbled up by a US$36,4 million debt accrued to various suppliers in 2013, leaving the running of these health institutions on cash paying individuals and medical aid societies.
A perusal of the 2015 National Budget shows that the Health ministry received $301(6,3 percent of the budget) million for use last year, with $177 million going towards employment costs, $53 million for operations and $28 million for capital expenditure.
Of the $53 million set aside for operations, $8 million was allocated for all the public hospitals in the country, against total requirements of $142 million.
In the 2016 National Budget, the Ministry of Health and Child Care was allocated US$330 million which translates to 9,7 percent of the country’s US$4 billion total budget.
The allocation is against the country’s population of 13,5 million people which means that the Government intends to averagely spend $24 per every individual during the whole year.
This is a small amount when compared to South Africa, which spends an average of $650 per person each year while the Angolan Governments set aside $200 to cater for each persons’ health care needs last year.
Zimbabwe is a signatory of the Abuja declaration of 2001 which states that member countries have to allocate 15 percent of their budget to the health sector.
However, the country’s budgetary allocation for health has fell short of the 15 percent threshold.
According to latest statistics by the World Health Organization; countries such as Malawi, Rwanda, Madagascar, Togo and Zambia have managed to reach the Abuja target.
As of 2015, Rwanda was spending at least 23 percent of its budget on health care.
It is imperative that going forward, priority must be given to providing adequate funding for the health sector so as to ensure affordable health services. Health expert, Professor Tsungai Chipato, said there was need for Government to adhere to the World Health Organization agreements and standards on providing health care to citizens.
He said the current budget for the health sector was little to guarantee the provision of quality basic health care to ordinary Zimbabweans.
“Government needs to adhere to the 15 percent that was stipulated by the WHO. It should not be 10 percent or 12 percent of the budget but 15 percent,” he said.
“There is a reason why countries agreed to that figure and I have no doubt that once we begin to adhere to that figure health care services will improve in the country.”
