Medical discipline saves lives

THE year 2021 was a miserable year because many people succumbed to COVID-19 with many others suffering from the effects of the coronavirus.

Zimbabwe managed COVID-19 well with many lives having been saved at a time when many prophets of doom thought we were going to be decimated as a nation.

It is known globally that Africa has poor resources, poor infrastructure and a shortage of health personnel, among other problems. However, the few remaining health personnel stood tall to contain the dreaded COVID-19 and we became more victorious than many of the developed countries that lost thousands of their people.

We thank God for the guidance we got despite the vilification we got from the agents of scepticism. A functional strategy is what is needed to sail through turbulent waters.

Last year had three intertwined waves of the COVID-19 with the second wave extending from December 2020 and lasting up to March 2021 while the third wave had the Delta variant strangulating people from end of June to end of August.

The number of cases admitted with respiratory complications was high and many hospitals were overwhelmed.

Health professionals remained astute and managed to contain the virus with government imposing lockdowns, enhancing vaccination processes, scaling up testing and creating more beds for admission.

All health professionals were permitted to attend to COVID-19 patients and many patients managed to access health services. Medical professionals were applauded as heroes of the nation.

Many people succumbed to COVID-19 and it is not a secret that health professionals were among them. It is gut-wrenching to lose colleagues in the line of duty. The other sad part was that many patients with relatives in the medical field went on to complicate.

Medical practitioners complained about interference in the management of such patients with some relatives prescribing treatment over the phone. I wonder why our colleagues in the diaspora think we do not know what to do yet the country performed better than many European countries in terms of COVID-19 management if both morbidity and mortality are taken into consideration. Zimbabwe boasts producing some of the best medical professionals in the world hence the high rate of brain drain that is crippling the health sector.

Medical treatment requires discipline and following of guidelines that are given by practitioners attending to the patient not merely “Dr Google”. Many patients lost their lives because of the arrogance of relatives who claim to know more than everyone just because they are in the diaspora. Medicine is a complex field that requires discipline not barking instructions over the phone.

We lost relatives and friends because of pride as we taught them how to self-test, selfprescribe medication and selfmanage even complicated cases. Desaturation became a common phenomenon as patients developed respiratory distress syndrome.

Death was inevitable.

We admit, we have our ills as a nation and we expect government and other stakeholders to work round the clock to address the following:

Brain drain in the health sector — 2021 is one of the worst years in the history of Zimbabwe if worker migration is to be talked of. Today, the United Kingdom boasts about 4 780 health workers from Zimbabwe, second from Nigeria that has about 10 494 health workers working in UK. At least 2 200 health workers left Zimbabwe in 2021 for countries like Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, USA.

In 2020, about 1 100 health workers left Zimbabwe while in 2019, about 700 health workers deserted our country for greener pastures. If the rate of staff turnover is not slowed down, I foresee many public clinics and hospitals running with skeleton staff in 2022, a development likely to further cripple the health sector.

Decisive and incontrovertible actions are supposed to be taken especially by government. Why is there no bold action being taken when the health sector is drowning?

Uncompetitive remuneration — Health workers have been crying about poor salaries and benefits which have haunted them for long. The policy-makers have come up with a raft of measures some of which have died a natural death due to lack of implementation.

The inter-ministerial taskforce considered a number of factors which included the provision of Wi-Fi, food, accommodation for health staff. Health workers have been clamouring for vehicle loans, residential stands, farms and it is now a national anthem, alas, nothing concrete is coming from the employer.

It is time all the ministries involved put their heads together in a bid to bring relief to the disgruntled health workers. Who is sitting on the implementation documents?

Corruption in the health sector — Many cases of corruption have been reported at hospitals where tender procedures have been flouted by those responsible for purchasing. Recently, the Supreme Court upheld a judgment by the High Court where the Judicial Service Commission sought to confiscate Russell Tatenda Mwenye’s Ruwa property which was alleged to have been bought from the proceeds of corruption. Corrupt tendencies are rampant at all levels of health leadership.

We hope for a better 2022 in terms of health service delivery. All ills should be nipped in the bud for a better Zimbabwe.

Say no to corruption and save the nation from collapse. And let us all value our health workforce!