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The country’s health sector received a major boost on Thursday with the commissioning of state of the art medical equipment in Harare by President Mugabe. The equipment, worth $100 million, sourced from China under a loan deal will see the modernisation of the country’s health sector and Zimbabwe joining an elite group of countries moving with changes taking place in the medical field.

The government had over the years failed to procure advanced equipment for health institutions because of sanctions which have affected State revenue inflows.

This resulted in health institutions, particularly public hospitals, operating with obsolete equipment.

Zimbabwe boasts of some of the best trained medical personnel who are in demand in other countries.

However, the paradox is that despite the government spending millions of dollars training doctors, nurses and other related health staff, more and more Zimbabweans are going abroad to seek treatment because of inadequate equipment in hospitals.

Now that hospitals are set to receive top notch machinery which can compete with that found in other countries, it will no longer be necessary for locals to go to foreign countries to seek treatment.

Desperate Zimbabweans have been going as far as India which has a booming medical tourism industry, bleeding the country of scarce foreign currency.

But as President Mugabe pointed out, with sophisticated equipment now available in the country, it will no longer be necessary to undertake such costly trips.

The cutting edge equipment will enable local doctors to undertake complicated medical procedures.

“I believe doctors, who yesterday, perhaps used crude instruments, will now use sharpened instruments, very modern, modern indeed,” said the President of the equipment which will be distributed to various health centres across the country.

The country, leveraging on its highly trained medical practitioners, should make the country a major medical tourism destination with outsiders coming to Zimbabwe for treatment.

We believe that the new machinery can make the country earn valuable foreign currency from foreigners coming to seek treatment here.

At present, South Africa is the hub of medical tourism in the Sadc region. There is no reason why Zimbabwe, because of its geographical location and qualified doctors, cannot tap into this potentially lucrative industry.

There should be no need for people, say from Zambia or the DRC, to travel all the way to South Africa for medical procedures which can be done in Zimbabwe.

What is essential is for medical service providers to charge competitive rates that will attract medical tourists to Zimbabwe.

The government also needs to ensure that the equipment will be put to good use instead of gathering dust because there are no qualified people to use it.

It is imperative that qualified personnel be recruited and retained at public hospitals because the machines from China will only be good if they are put to use.