Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Health, Health Professionals, Invited Guests, Fellow Zimbabweans;
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to address this summit today as it enables me to emphasise how important the work that you are doing is to this government and to this nation and to assure you of all the support that we are able to give.
As a Zimbabwean, I am proud of the role that our health system has played in the history of our nation’s development. While we must all acknowledge that it is only a shadow of its former self, I know that in a short time we will be able to begin revitalising our health system because of its inherent foundations.
Ladies and gentlemen, a decline in the health of a population is a sign that there is something wrong within our society as a whole. When, as a society, the poorest and most vulnerable are not able to afford the costs of their health care and their survival, we cannot judge ourselves to be succeeding by any measure.
For this new Inclusive Government, making improvements in people’s health will be one of the most important indicators of whether we are making the right choices politically and implementing them effectively.
We acknowledge that the responsibility for the nation’s health does not rest with the Ministry of Health alone. The greatest improvements in health, including in our health sector, will come from improvements in political stability and economic progress.
As a government, we must consider health in all policies, and not just in the policies of the health sector. We will strive towards ensuring that every household in Zimbabwe has a level of affordable, safe, accessible water required for health, safe sanitation and efficient waste disposal.
This government is committed to rehabilitating infrastructure so that we will never again have a situation where the water, sanitation, waste disposal systems and access to food, reach such a level of degradation that they become the significant challenge to public health that they are today.
This is the responsibility of water, lands, agriculture, infrastructure, local government, finance and other sectors. Trade and industry have a responsibility to stimulate recovery of the industries that provide supplies for health, including pharmaceuticals.
To attract or keep our health workers in the country, then higher education, public works, housing, public services, finance and other sectors will need to come together to support the training and incentives for this. To get supplies to communities and people to services, transport and communication sectors need to get on board.
As Prime Minister, it is my responsibility to ensure that all sectors within government act together, with explicit commitments and budget resources to support action to bring our nation’s health back from the brink.
The health sector cannot afford to treat, at high cost, the failure of these sectors to work together to meet their obligations towards the population.
We have had a clear warning of this in the national trauma of over 85 thousand reported cases of cholera and over 4000 reported cholera deaths by the end of February 2009. This is most likely a dramatic underestimate of the real figures given the unreported cases and deaths in communities.
While the Ministry of Health is not solely responsible for health, it is the custodian of the Public Health Act. Therefore it has a role to play in providing decisive leadership in advocating for the health of our nation. We cannot have a situation where the health sector fears to expose and deal with public health risks.
As we head into a period of constitutional reform it will be important to also identify the rights to health and health care that need to be embedded in this new, people-driven constitution to empower people, health workers and authorities to ensure that our right to health is defined, delivered and defended.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this summit brings together key health actors and raises a number of expectations. You are here because you expect us to make decisions and show leadership that will bring progress. We are here to listen to the knowledge, experience and views of those in the sector to inform those decisions and that leadership.
We need to base our plans on clearly identified problems, but we must go beyond what can be a paralysing analysis of problems to a proposal of actions. Therefore, I encourage the discussions at this summit to focus on entry points and actions for immediate interventions that lead towards comprehensive solutions.
So much attention has been given to what we don’t have in our health systems that we are at risk of losing track of what we do have! We have an infrastructure of services in place from clinic to central hospital level, but it is not properly functioning, and there are gaps in some areas. We have a major shortfall in health workers, but there are also many health workers in place who can’t function because they don’t have access to the most basic medicines, diagnostic equipment or supplies. We have capable environmental health workers who don’t have the fuel to go into the community.
So a starting point must be to get the resources to where the health workers are, so we can begin to get the system functioning again.
A first priority therefore is to ensure essential resources reach the community, primary care clinic and district hospital services. I hope that by the end of the summit there are proposals and contributions from health institutions, professionals and community representatives on how we will achieve this for all areas of the country in such a way that the resources reach the communities they are intended for.
This does not only apply to curative services, but to the health promotion activities within communities from nutrition gardens for supplementary feeding, to the disease prevention and control services.
While the cholera epidemic has necessitated an emergency response, we cannot be permanently locked into emergency mode. What we do now should lay the basis for longer term rehabilitation of our health system and send signals of the principles we intend to use for this.
The challenges are significant, but if the government coordinates its activities effectively, and if we build upon the relationships with our stakeholders, we will be able to overcome them and once again have a health system that is the pride of our nation and the envy of our continent.
This government is committed to ensuring that those institutions that are dedicated to teaching our doctors and nurses receive the resources they require to produce the highest standards of training and professionalism.
In addition, this government is committed to ensuring that we are able to pay appropriate incentive packages to retain the essential skilled personnel still working within the health sector and to attract our medical professionals back from the Diaspora.
I would like to emphasise the points made by the Minister of Health. This government supports the Ministry’s role as the central coordinator of a harmonized health response embodied in the “Three Ones” – one national plan, one coordinating body and one monitoring and evaluation system.
Ladies and Gentlemen, after my visit to Harare Central Hospital last week, I am more aware than ever of the task that lies before us and I am thankful that you have all gathered here today to share ideas, coordinate efforts and pool resources in order to tackle this vital challenge.
My visit also demonstrated to me that the goal of getting our health care system moving again is tangible and achievable. This government has the political will and together we will be able to utilise the available skills and mobilise the necessary resources to ensure that our health system meets the needs of our people.
I know that we can achieve this because we have such a strong foundation. In particular, the calibre and commitment of our health professionals, the quality and effectiveness of our health systems that were developed and implemented over many years, and the breadth and depth of our health infrastructure.
To our health professionals, let me say that adverse times bring out the best in people. You have been the heroes in the struggle to keep our health system alive and you will be the leaders in the fight to revitalise it.
Your government and your nation owes you a debt of gratitude.
I thank you.
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