Health and Child Care Minister, Dr Douglas Mombeshora, has claimed that geopolitical tensions in the Middle East could potentially disrupt the delivery of cancer treatment equipment ordered by the government.
The minister was responding to concerns raised in Parliament by Pumula Member of Parliament (MP), Sichelesile Mahlangu, regarding the treatment of elderly patients in hospitals.
Mahlangu had questioned whether adequate systems exist to monitor the care of older persons, while making sure they receive entitled services, including access to diagnostic scans where equipment is available.
In his response, Dr Mombeshora said Zimbabwe had already begun procuring key medical equipment using funds from the sugar tax, including cancer machines meant to improve treatment capacity in public hospitals.
“We started with the procurement of cancer machines, which we reported last time that two of the machines are already in the country and the other two are waiting for shipment from the Netherlands,” he said.
However, the health minister noted the delivery timeline of the other two cancer machines could be affected by the ongoing instability in the Middle East.
“We do not know whether this is going to be affected by the disturbances in the Middle East because I am sure the shipping is supposed to go through the Strait of Hormuz, but the procurement has been done,” Dr Mombeshora told Parliament.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most critical maritime routes, linking the Persian Gulf to global shipping lanes and has recently been under scrutiny amid current tensions involving regional powers such as Iran and Israel.
Dr Mombeshora said despite the potential logistical risks, the government remained committed to upgrading diagnostic and treatment capacity across the country’s public health institutions.
“We are in the next stage where we have said all provincial and central hospitals are going to get new X-ray machines, CT scanners and the central hospitals are also going to get additional MRI scanners,” he said.
According to the minister, the programme aims to make sure all provincial and central hospitals are equipped with modern diagnostic equipment to improve patient care.
He added that most district hospitals had already received digital X-ray machines, theatre equipment and ultrasound machines as part of the ongoing health infrastructure upgrades.
Mahlangu had raised concerns about monitoring mechanisms to make sure elderly patients receive proper medical attention in public hospitals, including access to medication and diagnostic scans, to which Dr Mombeshora said hospital administrators were responsible for making sure services were delivered according to health regulations, while ministry officials conducted periodic inspections across the country.
“We also have staff from the Ministry who go around doing some checks but it takes a bit of time for them to go around the whole country,” he said.
The inspections, he added, help identify gaps in service delivery and allow corrective measures to be taken where necessary.
Meanwhile, the health minister was given seven days to update Parliament on the state of hospitals, availability of medication and the utilisation of sugar tax funds after admitting that previous statements he had prepared are now “outdated.”
This was after a point of privilege raised by Kwekwe Central legislator, Judith Tobaiwa, who expressed frustration over outstanding ministerial statements that had been requested since last year.
Tobaiwa reminded the House that MPs had been awaiting three key ministerial statements: the first on the state of hospitals and medication availability and another on the sugar tax.
She requested that the health minister consolidate all responses into a comprehensive report.
“Since last year, we have requested ministerial statements. Firstly, we wanted to know the state of the hospitals and also the medication. Secondly, we requested a ministerial statement pertaining to the issue of sugar tax. My request is that the Minister should clarify and include everything because we requested for three ministerial statements,” Tobaiwa said.
Responding to the concerns, the Temporary Speaker sought clarification from the minister on whether he had indeed been requested to deliver statements that were never presented.
Dr Mombeshora confirmed he had prepared the documents and brought them to Parliament on a previous sitting but was not given an opportunity to present them.
“I brought papers to this august House last time, the ministerial statements, but I was not given a chance to present them but I can do it again. Now, they are a bit outdated. I request that you give me a week to spruce them up so that they are up to date because so many changes have taken place since that time,” he said.
The Temporary Speaker granted the minister’s request, directing him to update the documents to reflect the current situation before presenting them to the House.
“Yes, may you please go and redo or update them to your current status and then present them to the House,” the Temporary Speaker ruled.
The sugar tax was introduced in 2018 on sugary beverages, with proceeds meant to fund essential health equipment and services.
Lawmakers have repeatedly sought clarity on how these funds are used, particularly regarding the procurement of cancer machines and other critical diagnostic equipment, citing drug shortages in public hospitals and general deterioration of health infrastructure across the country.
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During geography lessons some 50 years ago, I learnt that the Strait of Hormuz is in the Gulf States and nowhere near the Netherlands, which is in western Europe, so the folk story, as narrated to the nation, is very far-fetched…..Minister revise your poem….