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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

THE Ministry of Health and Child Care is concerned about delays in procurement processes at the country’s public hospitals, which it feels causes unnecessary shortages of medicines and other supplies.

Government a few years ago established the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) to regulate procurement in public entities but there has been concerns that procurement processes are slow and tedious.

A team of health experts comprising Government officials and heads of parastatals and councils falling under the Ministry of Health recently visited Victoria Falls Hospital where authorities complained about shortage of supplies.

The team, led by Health Deputy Minister Dr John Mangwiro, was told that procurement was made more than a year ago for some services and medical supplies and nothing had been delivered to date.

Dr Mangwiro said there is a need to change procurement approach in health to speed up the process.

The visit to the hospital followed hosting of a weeklong corporate governance training workshop for public entities and professional associations by the Ministry of Health for public entities within its ambit.

“We were basically hosting a meeting where people were taught procedures in procurement and we decided to go and see the hospital. What we found is that some of the things are in a state of disrepair and most things are not functioning. Toilets are not working as there is no running water. 

“When we asked the District Medical Officer (Dr Fungai Mvura) she said they had put some of these things to the board almost a year or two ago and the procurement process is long and up to now nothing has happened. 

“The most important thing is that we have to change and quicken our procurement systems because this is taking back a lot of things. The fact that the procurement process takes long and is tedious really draws people back,” said Dr Mangwiro.

He said there is a need for improvement in all hospitals across the country. Some laboratories, Dr Mangwiro said, were not working or operating below capacity because of lack of supplies and equipment to conduct tests.

“The most important thing is that we brought the procurement experts from PRAZ and Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission so that we see where the difficulties are and where the communication is lost and move forward.

“We have learnt a lot together as Government officers from the recent workshop that we need to coordinate so that the patient in the nation can gain positively,” he said.

PRAZ capacity building director Mr Clifford Gondo commended Victoria Falls Hospital authorities for coming up with a procurement plan and promised to follow up on the delays in procurement.

“In terms of procurement I think the hospital has done well as they have managed to come up with a procurement plan and we now need to understand why they are not getting things they need in time. My thinking is that there are also issues to do with capacity building as PRAZ rules seem to be cumbersome,” he said.

“We will get the PRAZ team to come and capacitate everybody including the medical staff in terms of how they go about their procurement process so they are able to identify things that are urgent.”

Victoria Falls Hospital is the only public health facility in the resort city and serves as a referral for the whole Hwange district which has no district hospital.

St Patrick’s, Hwange Colliery and Lukosi Hospital are the other available institutions in the district but are privately run. 5-Miles Hospital, which was meant to be Hwange’s district hospital, is lying idle after the buildings were condemned before completion for being substandard.