City requires US$450k for free maternal care
HARARE City Council requires at least US$450 000 a month to provide free maternal health services in line with Government policy, city health director Dr Prosper Chonzi has said.
In an interview following the increase of medical fees, including maternity services at all council health facilities, Dr Chonzi said apart from sundries and consumables used during delivery and post-delivery care to both mother and child, the municipality also needed to continue offering the same services to the next expecting mother, hence the new fee structure.
Council has pegged the cost of registering for a normal delivery at $120 from $25 with effect from yesterday.
It has further increased doctor’s consultation from $10 to $35, consultation by nurses from $5 up to $25 (adults) and $10 for children from $3. Patients with chronic illnesses will now be paying $5 up from $1.
“We have been charging sub-economical fees, which were making it difficult for us to continue offering quality services to our patients. In the case of pregnant women, it had become very difficult for us to replace what we would have used to help them deliver.
“This latest move will help us to avoid asking patients to bring their own sundries as we can also not guarantee the quality of the items they would have brought,” said Dr Chonzi.
He said while this new fee structure seems to be on the high side, council still needed to purchase sundries such as gloves and pads, which are used to assist with deliveries as well as maintaining its equipment for use by other patients.
He said apart from the actual delivery council offers pre-delivery services (pre-natal care), services upon delivery and post delivery services (post-natal care) for both the mother and the child.
Women receive post-natal care up to six weeks after delivery and newly-born babies receive monitoring and support care for up to five years.
“For us to provide this total package, we require at least US$150 per delivery. Council attends to an average of 3 000 deliveries across all its facilities every month which brings the total to US$450 000. Should anyone be able to give us this money upfront, then we would be able to provide free maternal services in line with Government’s directive,” said Dr Chonzi.
Family Health director in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Bernard Madzima said while the Health Development Fund (HDF) was meant to respond to those financial challenges, Harare and Bulawayo were excluded from eligible cities who should benefit from the HDF.
He said there was therefore need by Treasury to reintroduce grants it used to allocate to local authorities for health services.
Dr Madzima said in the absence of that financial support more women could fail to access these services resulting in increased maternal complications or deaths.
Zimbabwe’s maternal mortality is still high with an estimated 614 women in every 100 000 dying while giving birth.
By introducing the free maternal health services, Government was responding to the issue of cost, which was cited by many pregnant women as a hindrance to accessing services in maternity facilities.