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ZIMBABWE: Health budget fails to address brain drain
IRIN News
December 16, 2005

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50727

JOHANNESBURG - Although Zimbabwe's ministry of health has received 12 percent of the national budget - its highest allocation to date - government officials and health experts agree that this will do little to address the brain drain afflicting the sector.

The newly created Health Services Board (HSB) received Zim $2 billion (US $22,000) of the requested Zim $30 billion ($330,000) in the 2006 budget. The HSB was mandated with improving the salaries and conditions of service of health personnel, the major push factor in the ongoing exodus of medical staff.

Parliamentary portfolio committee chairman Blessing Chebundo told IRIN the failure of the government to cater for the HSB, the new employer of ministry of health personnel, would do little to stem the flight of health professionals seeking greener pastures outside the country.

"The inability of the government to provide for the HSB means we are not doing anything about the problem of brain drain. The HSB cannot attract people by offering poor salaries - it certainly cannot retain them if the conditions do not change either. Government has to find money for the board," Chebundo told IRIN.

The budget has also renewed debate about the government's commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS, especially its failure to provide a specific allocation for scaling up treatment. Of the 500,000 people in immediate need of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), only 24,000 are on treatment. Zimbabwe has 1.8 million people living with HIV/AIDS.

Health Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa told IRIN that the government was aware of the growing areas of need in the health sector and conceded that the HSB would not be able to perform its core functions unless it received supplementary funding, and that the 2006 budget was inadequate in the areas of HIV/AIDS treatment.

"The treatment needs are ever-growing, but we should also take note of the fact that government has not been sitting idle. Over the years we have been allocating money to the NAC [National AIDS Council] for disbursement for activities in the districts. Besides, we now have access to the Global Fund [finance], which also helps us in facing up to AIDS, but the HSB is incapacitated unless some supplementary funding comes," Parirenyatwa added.

Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa said the HSB would have to apply for additional resources specific to their needs, and there was a possibility that fresh funding allocations could made on demand.

The budget had prioritised areas of immediate need, like hospital construction and rehabilitation, and the provision of ambulances, drugs and medical equipment. "Most of the equipment at our institutions is obsolete or not working at all," Murerwa told IRIN.

Zimbabwean hospitals have been in crisis since the forex crunch started in 2000. Drug shortages have become endemic, while the massive exodus of highly qualified personnel has been blamed on poor salaries and bad working conditions. Most of the country's medical staff has left for Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Botswana, where salaries and working conditions are better.

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