By Staff Reporter
In a sad development, Masvingo Rural District Council has reintroduced a clinic levy on all its health facilities in the district ending a 10 year free access to health care services.
Masvingo RDC chairperson Elias Jera confirmed the development to TellZim News saying the move was necessitated by high operational costs since donors who were funding the costs for the past decade had pulled out.
A notice was flighted by the local authority giving specifications of the levy which is effective from August 01, 2024 where adults are expected to pay US$1 whilst children will be paying US$0.50. Pregnant women will be expected to pay US$5 per pregnancy.
“Please be advised that council is re-introducing clinic levies in council clinics with effect from August 1 as follows. Adults US$ 1 per visit, children US$0.50 per visit, maternity US$5 per visit. The move has been necessitated by clinics’ running costs,” reads the notice.
Jera said they were aware of the difficult situation villagers were facing especially in rural areas but had no better options than to levy them operational costs only.
“We reintroduced the levy that had been stopped in 2014. We used to have donors who were funding these operational costs but sadly the funding partner pulled out recently, therefore, we had no other option than to reintroduce the levy so that we cover the operational costs,” said Jera.
“We are aware that people are struggling and they hardly afford to pay for the health care services but this was the only viable option if we are to sustain these clinics. Villagers will only pay operational costs,” he added.
The health facilities were being funded on a programme called Result Based Financing (RBF).
Access to health is expensive and dire as most health facilities have no medication and usually people go there to get prescriptions that they will use to buy medication from pharmacies.
