ZIMBABWE faces a myriad of challenges in the health sector and in most cases, the Health and Child Care ministry is blamed for all the ills afflicting the health delivery system.
We all agree the custodian of the health service is the ministry, but some challenges are beyond its control.
In 2007, the World Health Organisation (WHO) came up with six building blocks that are the mainstay of a strong health delivery system.
These building pillars remain significant even today and they include service delivery, financing, health informatics, governance, medicines and health workforce.
If one of these pillars is missing, it results in a shaky building, a building which can crack even from a simple whirlwind hence the need to integrate all the six blocks.
Zimbabwe’s Public Health Advisory Board was established by the Public Health Act in 2014, alas, it has not been functional since then.
There are multiple health challenges in the country and the functionality of the board has potential to solve some of the issues that seem to threaten humanity.
The board is supposed to comprise various professionals who include nurses, doctors, dentists, radiographers, physiotherapists, lawyers, pharmacists, environmentalists, traditional health practitioners, representatives from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), trade unions, missionary bodies, women’s associations and many other professionals who are trusted to deliver the necessary input to help to shape the health sector.
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The role of the Public Health Advisory Board should include the following:
l To provide advice to the Health and Child Care minister on relevant issues.
l To identify public health priorities and to provide advice on health policy matters.
l To carry out commissioned research into various aspects of public health.
l To share information as it is supposed to hold the annual national health consultative forum to promote the sharing of information among all stakeholders.
Prominent medical NGOs like Africa Centres for Disease Control (CDC) have advisory boards.
The Africa CDC Advisory and Technical Council is an independent board that offers technical and consultative support on issues like emerging diseases, surveillance, resource mobilisation and strategy to Africa CDC.
The WHO African Advisory Committee on Health Research and Development is a multi-disciplinary committee established to advise the WHO regional director on research related to health policies and development strategies, focusing on evaluating research, advising on research policies and developing research capacity.
The availability of advisory councils for such big organisations underscores the need for a functional public health advisory board in a country like Zimbabwe which faces multifaceted health problems that range from extensive brain drain, lack of medicines, obsolete equipment, poor health financing, poor data collection, poor emergency service delivery, high morbidity and mortality, among others.
It is my advice that the Public Health Advisory Board be reconstituted as a matter of urgency in view of the myriad of health challenges in the country.
The health institutions that we have are contributing to poor outcomes in healthcare facilities, a situation that is deplorable in this day and age when we are supposed to have universal health coverage.
Our National Health Strategy can remain a pipe dream if challenges like financing and health worker migration are not rectified.
The country has failed to archive the 15% Abuja Declaration on funding for some time now, only archiving an average of around 11,4% for the past four years.
Donor support is dwindling lately and the situation has been aggravated by the United States’ withdrawal of aid to many countries around the world.
The country has, however, tried to turn to domestic funding with the introduction of surtaxes in the form of health levy and sugar tax.
The health levy is 5% of the value of airtime purchased while the sugar tax is at US$0,001 per gramme of sugar added to beverages.
The revenue generated from the surtaxes is intended for healthcare funding including the purchase of medicines, cancer equipment and other important supplies.
Let's all work for the betterment of the health delivery system.
