Solanki calls for medical adverts
ONE of the leading medical experts in this country, Dr Vivaki Solanki, wants authorities to review the regulations on advertisements in the medical fraternity to ensure that all information in the field is disseminated to the public.
He was speaking during the Zim Community Trailblazers Awards ceremony in Harare on Friday night.
“This is where the problem lies, we are not allowed to advertise, and we cannot put billboards, or adverts in newspapers or magazines to educate the public to say these facilities are available here. “But Coca-Cola, cooking oil advertise, why are they allowed to have a billboard and I cannot have a billboard?
“I think there is a problem there.
“People like us, have to push the button and enlighten the authorities that we have to make the changes, we have to assist.
“We have assisted with an open-heart at Parirenyatwa Hospital but we need them to support us in our needs.
“I asked them again that we have a need, we need to look into our regulations regarding advertising for the health sector.
“When we land in Johannesburg, Nairobi and India, Dubai, there are billboards and overall advertising for the medical facilities.
“Yet we have the same back home and people are not aware of it.” Dr Vivaki added: “I have been in business for 37 years, and people do not know about it, that’s purely because of limitations of dissemination of information about where we are and what we can do. “We need to encourage each other and hold each other’s hand because nobody else will, we do not have the finances to support the health sector.
“The younger generation and specialists from Zimbabwe can see from our examples and know that it can be done.
“Your future is out here in Zimbabwe. Only Zimbabweans can make a difference, not foreigners, not foreign investment.
“Our President talks about medical tourism and the Trauma Centre is big in medical tourism, a lot of foreign patients from all over come here. “I ask; how will the foreigners know when Zimbabweans don’t know what facilities are available in Zimbabwe?
“The whole world is a global village today, so whatever technology is available in London, Durban is also available in Harare.”
He hailed Zimbabwe for standing firm during Covid-19. “Covid came along and turned everything around, when the world expected Africa and Zimbabwe to fall to have millions of deaths, we turned it around,
“The health sector in Zimbabwe, including nurses, and doctors, did a tremendous job. We trained over 300 health workers in Covid-19, and everybody in the health sector stepped up. “That’s when Zimbabwe woke up and realised that we have a real health sector here, real doctors.”