HEALTH and Child Care minister David Parirenyatwa will be summoned to appear before Parliament to explain why the revised Public Health Act has not yet been brought before the House for crafting.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
Unimpressed MPs affiliated to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health, who were attending a workshop promoted by Save the Children Fund, said Parirenyatwa should explain the delay in bringing the Bill before Parliament.
Peeved MPs alleged Parirenyatwa was spending a lot of time outside the country instead of attending to the important Bill to do with the health of citizens, while other ministers ensured their Bills were brought before Parliament.
“Every sector is governed by an Act of Parliament, and we feel that the Public Health Act must be amended because it is very outdated as we are still using a 1924 Public Health Act when we have had a change in diseases, epidemiology, and other health patterns,” Ruth Labode, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health chairperson, said.
“The Act must be changed to take into cognisance all those changes, yet the Health ministry is slowing down progress at a time when we are seeing all other ministries pushing their Bills in Parliament.”
Labode said most stakeholders, including the youth, wanted the law passed “as soon as yesterday” to take into cognisance access to health services and issues of contraceptives.
“The Zimbabwe Medical Association is saying they also want the Bill to clear issues of medical aid and private practice, and the committee now feels we must call the minister to ask him what is happening on the Bill,” she said.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
A member of the committee, Jasmine Toffa (MDC), said every Zimbabwean had a constitutional right to access health and there was no reason why the Health ministry should sit on the Bill.
Gutu South legislator Paul Chimedza (Zanu PF) said the current Public Health Act was enacted during the Rhodesian era and now a lot of issues in the health sector were different, yet the country continued to use an archaic law. Manicaland Senator David Anthony Chimhini (MDC-T) said the Bill must be taken seriously, as it would address issues of user fees, traditional medicines and access to health by all, as well as affordability.
Director for policy and co-ordination in the Health ministry, Artwell Banda, said the Public Health Bill would guide Zimbabweans as to how health services must be delivered, taking into cognisance constitutional provisions where health is a right.
Banda said the ministry was at an advanced stage of drafting the Bill, and thereafter, it would be taken before the Cabinet Committee on Legislation and then Parliament.
But MPs were not impressed because the Bill was supposed to be taken to Cabinet by March.
