THE Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) is concerned by the recent health workers strike, where doctors and nurses are involved.
The absence of health workers, who are already in short supply for the country’s population, is serious threat to fundamental human rights to health and life.
For over a fortnight, patients have been stranded without getting medical attention at the public health institutions across the country.
ZimRights is deeply worried by the government’s slow reaction to the catastrophe, which needs urgent solutions, including paying the medical practitioners decent wages consummate with their work.
The current health crisis is a direct result of the repeated failure to adequately fund the health sector.
Public health allocation as a percentage of total government expenditure was 7.7% in the 2018 National Budget Statement, which is worryingly just half of the recommended 15% as per the Abuja Declaration.
These reveals the government’s failure to uphold a human rights-based approach to the prioritisation of national resources and to service provision.
Source: ZimRights
