A HEALTH workforce, among financing, governance, service delivery, information technologies and medicines issues, is the cornerstone of a solid health delivery system of every country, according to World Health Organisation’s 2007 building blocks.
Zimbabwe has trained highly knowledgeable medical personnel who continue to be lured by developed countries. The last few years have seen at least 5 000 nurses migrating for greener pastures with doctors, physiotherapists, pharmacists following suit. The level of brain drain is catastrophic if it continues unabated.
The bottom line is that medical personnel are disgruntled because of uncompetitive remuneration, inadequate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, lack of job development opportunities and the general toxic economic environment.
Zimbabwe was known to be a highly literate country with a literacy rate of more than 90%. The country has trained thousands of doctors since the first medical school was established in 1963 as an affiliate of the University of Birmingham. Today, the country boasts of four medical schools, the latest addition being Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences in Masvingo under Great Zimbabwe University.
The latter was officially opened by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in October 2022 and had its first intake of students in March 2023. This is all cloying news for Masvingo and special mention should go to the conscientious vice-chancellor Rungano Zvobgo and the pertinacious medical academic and dean, Jacob Mufunda.
Mufunda has played a very significant role in this country’s health delivery system because many doctors have passed through his hands as students. The man has traversed virtually all the medical schools in Zimbabwe. He was at the University of Zimbabwe, Midlands State University and at GZU Simon Mazorodze Medical School.
Masvingo General Hospital is a natural selection as the immediate teaching hospital of Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences. What should now be prioritised is the upgrading and revamping of the hospital to accommodate as many specialists as possible who will include physicians, general surgeons, urologists, neurosurgeons, anesthetists, cardiothoracic surgeons, gynecologists, ENT surgeons, maxillofacial surgeons and dentists.
All these special areas will be part and parcel of the students training. It is prudent that work to upgrade the hospital should commence as a matter of urgency as students are now left with just two years to start clinical teaching at the hospital.
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Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga promised to upgrade Masvingo General Hospital and as a man of action, I do hope government will quickly start the project. Sooner than later, other health disciplines like pharmacy, nursing science and physiotherapy will need to be trained at the medical school so there is serious room for expansion.
Upgrading Masvingo General Hospital is sweet news, not only for medical students, but also for Masvingo province as a whole. Medical services which used to be sought in major cities will now be decentralised to Masvingo. That alone is a milestone which will save many lives.
Many surgical operations can be done at the general hospital, making it very efficient in terms of service delivery. Health and development are symbiotic in nature and it is undeniable that development occurs when there is sound health. The training of more doctors will help reduce the doctor-patient ratio which currently stands at an estimated 1:7 000 in our country.
Let us all unite for the betterment of Masvingo. The medical school surely needs our support. The lecturers are working hard to deliver the best to the aspiring doctors.
Johannes Marisa is president of the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners Association of Zimbabwe. He writes here in his personal capacity.
