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Zim hospitals, schools hike fees by 600 percent
Nqobizitha Khumalo, ZimOnline
January 05, 2008

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KKAA-7AMA5N?OpenDocument

BULAWAYO - Zimbabweans began the new year on a sad note this week after hospitals and schools increased medical and school fees by between 300 and 600 percent worsening the plight of millions of people battling a severe eight-year economic crisis.

The new medical and school fees came during the same week that the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), that the majority of Zimbabweans rely on for cheap transport, increased fares for urban passenger trains from Z$150 000 to $400 000.

The latest round of price increases will impact heavily on millions of Zimbabweans who are battling record inflation of over 8 000 percent, massive food shortages and unemployment.

Consultation fees at government-run hospitals where the majority of the poor access health services were this week increased from Z$1 000 to $10 million while private doctors have increased consultation fees from $7 million to $20 million.

An average Zimbabwean worker is earning about $40 million, way below the poverty datum line that last November stood at $65 million a month for an average family of five.

Those admitted at government hospitals will fork out $4.5 million a night while children will pay $4 million per night, up from $211 that was previously charged for overnight admission.

A survey in the second biggest city of Bulawayo showed that private medical practitioners were now charging as high as $25 million in consultation fees, a fortune for most Zimbabweans.

Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa said the government had approved the new fees to allow the health sector to stay afloat as the previous fees were "ridiculously too low".

"We had to bring the fees to reasonable levels as the level they were before was ridiculously too low . . . the health sector has to sustain itself," Parirenyatwa said.

NRZ acting public relations officer Zephaniah Taruvinga confirmed that they had increased fares with immediate effect.

"Despite the fact that we want to provide an affordable service, we have no option but to increase fares to cover our costs," said Taruvinga.

A passenger train from Harare to Bulawayo in the standard coach now costs $4 million, up from $2.5 million while passengers in the more comfortable sleeper section will part with $8 million up from $4 million.

Zimbabwe is in the grip of a debilitating political and economic crisis that is marked by hyperinflation, a rapidly contracting GDP, the fastest for a country not at war according to the World Bank and shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel. - ZimOnline

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