Bulawayo to host annual pharmaceutical congress
BULAWAYO will next week host the joint annual congress for Primary Health Care Physicians of Zimbabwe and Pharmaceutical Society of Zimbabwe, which is expected to draw foreign delegates.
A member of the local organising committee, Dr Cherifa Sururu, said preparations for the joint congress were at an advanced stage. Indications are that the event will be graced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
This year’s congress will run from 24 to 26 May under the theme: “Ensuring access to quality healthcare services and essential medicines for all”.
Dr Sururu said a number of presentations have been lined-up with a total of 16 abstract papers from health experts expected to be presented at the conference including those from professionals coming from England and Botswana.
“We have called people from England who are going to talk about primary health care basically focusing on what we call inter-professional education...we also have speakers from Botswana who are going to talk about patient centredness,” said Dr Sururu. He said the patient centredness topic was crucial as it supports cordial relations between patients and health practitioners.
“Normally when someone goes to the doctor, they expect the doctor to do everything but we are also starting to say the patient should also have much more saying in whatever is happening. We should have a system whereby the doctor and the patient are at an equal level and the doctor is not threatening because of his or her training,” said Dr Sururu.
The conference will also afford health practitioners room to align their services with Government’s policies. Its theme augurs well with the efforts being made by Government to improve the country’s health sector.
“This is a very important topic because improving healthcare is paramount especially when we look at the Government efforts. We need to make sure that our patients access quality healthcare and provision of medicines,” said Dr Sururu.