NEW DELHI, INDIA - ZIMBABWE is one of the few countries in the region without a formal agreement with India for its citizens to receive medical treatment in the Asian country, it has emerged.
This is despite the fact that the country's ailing political elite frequently travel to New Delhi for medical assistance.
In contrast, neighbouring countries such as Botswana, Mozambique, and Zambia have established such agreements with India.
The late Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko's recent passing due to pulmonary embolism while seeking treatment in India highlights the inadequacies of Zimbabwe's healthcare system.
The system is ill-equipped to handle complicated and chronic ailments, forcing ordinary citizens to rely on the country's struggling public hospitals.
Meanwhile, high-ranking officials like Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who has also served as the country's health minister, have been known to travel to India for medical treatment.
According to Varun Sukhija, Africa representative for Apollo Hospitals, several initiatives aimed at establishing a formal agreement between Zimbabwe and India for medical cooperation have failed.
Sukhija attributed the collapse of these initiatives to unsuccessful meetings with former Health Minister Obadiah Moyo.
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Moyo was dismissed from his cabinet position in 2019 by President Emmerson Mnangagwa due to allegations of abuse of office and improper handling of a US$60 million tender.
Prior to his ministerial role, Moyo served as the CEO of Chitungwiza Central Hospital, where a proposed kidney treatment facility initiative also fell through.
Sukhija said: “There are a number of engagements and hospitals we were talking to, for example Chitungwiza Hospital. We were helping them build a kidney transplant programme. Your former health minister, Dr. Moyo, was head of that hospital before that.
“We were helping. We went there. We worked at something. But sometimes things do not mature the way you would like them to. I have been to other hospitals in Harare. We have been to Bulawayo; we have done lectures.
“I am not very clear on how the government would like to engage with us, and what value we can bring them is something they will have to guide us on."
However, the executive said a number of African governments were defaulting on settling payments for their ailing citizens, while Zimbabweans were forking out from their personal coffers to travel to the Asian country for treatment.
Zimbabwe, he added, was excluded from that list because it has no formal arrangement with India.
“Since we do not have an arrangement with Zimbabwe, the government is not sending any patient for treatment. They come on their own and not getting money from government
“That arrangement is not there. So, we cannot talk of a default," he said.
An estimated 400 local patients travel to India annually for medical treatment.
Sukhija said India, which is a member of the Brics bloc and with an advanced health service system, was willing to assist other countries.
“We are not a rich country. We have developed models on how to come up with good outcomes without compromises at a low cost. Together with other institutes they are willing to help.
“There is no need to reinvent the wheel. We know where you get wrong in the learning stages and this should not be done," he said.
However, Health and Child Care deputy minister Sleiman Kwidini told the Independent that, while the government had no arrangements to send patients to India, it was working on initiatives that would see Indian specialists coming into the country to train local doctors.
"Not as such, but there is something that is being worked on like specialists from that side will come to teach ours so we can benefit from their expertise, because it's not possible to send people to be treated in India” he said.
Indian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Bramha Kumar is on record saying that a number of proposals were on the table for consideration in the health sector.
"India appreciates Zimbabwe for being the first country in Africa to give authorisation for use of Covaxin, a vaccine produced in India during the time of Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
The Asian country, with a population of over a billion people, donated 75 000 doses of Covaxin vaccines and 10 state-of-the-art ambulances in May 2021.
India has also made a number of medical related donations to Zimbabwe.
During India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Vellamvelly Muraleedharan’s visit in June 2022, India gifted anti-TB medicines worth US$100 000.
At the time of going to print, Moyo was not reachable for comment.
