The Minister of Health and Child Care Obadiah Moyo has admitted that there is a crisis in the public health delivery system with the country’s major hospitals operating well below 39 per cent.
In a ministerial statement on the status of the country’s health care sector, Moyo revealed that the strike by junior and senior doctors has paralysed the health sector. He said:
The withdrawal of labour by initially our junior doctors and subsequently joined by senior doctors has had a negative impact on the health delivery system.
… there is minimal health care provision in our public health institutions being rendered by the various health care workers who themselves did not participate in the withdrawal of labour as with the doctors.
Moyo revealed that there is currently no meaningful service at the country’s referral hospitals, Mpilo, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, United Bulawayo Hospital and Harare Central.
Only Chitungwiza Central Hospital is operating at above 39% capacity.