.….Itai Rusike, CWGH executive director
Own correspondent
THE Public Health Sector is already struggling with a plethora of issues, and not least among those – the inadequate funding and challenges in accessing the budgeted funds, and the general high cost of care and this might be exacerbated by the recent influx of fuel prices due to the Middle East war.
In Zimbabwe, fuel prices have recently risen from US$1 77 c to US$217 which is beyond reach of many people who were already struggling due to economic instability among other challenges.
Mr Itai Rusike the Founder and Executive Director of Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) said, increased fuel costs will obviously exacerbate these challenges and the health sector will not be spared.
“We import almost 100 percent of our fuel from countries as far as the Middle East and this oil has to pass through other countries adding to the final cost. These additional costs will obviously impact operations. For example, the impact on the hospital and clinic/health facilities budgets is almost immediate – they have to re-jig their budgets and allocate more towards transport costs and other operational activities that require fuel such as referrals, running generators, logistics, outreaches etc, so it means reduced activities or other areas/activities to have to be sacrificed,” he said.
He said, for the broader health sector, the supply chains will be disrupted leading to shortages of essential commodities, which will then result in cost escalation.
“For the staff – its transport costs that will eat into their incomes and further demoralise them, while for the patients its again the transport costs, food costs and cost of care that will eat into their incomes (out-of-pocket expenditure on health is already high by WHO standards), in the process affecting their health seeking behaviour, defaulting on treatment, etc. and possibly resulting in adverse health outcomes,” he said.
Mr Rusike said, prices of other basic commodities are generally downwards and even in the event that the oil market/supply stabilises – the disruption is causing uncertainty in the market and critical infrastructure is being affected, while contracts are being assessed and may have to be renegotiated – hence people are not likely to see an benefits in the short term.
He said, it remains to be seen how the country is going to recover from this current shock – its not all doom and gloom.
“Increased operating costs for health facilities. Hospitals and clinics rely a lot on electricity, and of course, in the case of Zimbabwe, generators because of power outages, but also ambulances and even other medical equipment. When fuel prices increase then the cost of running these facilities, the cost of running generators, sustaining the health facilities, using the generators because of power outages. Obviously, those costs then increase, so that then places an additional burden on health care providers, but it also increases the cost of transporting medicines and medical supplies, the cost of transportation, the crosstalk logistics of essential medicines, vaccines, even equipment to hospitals and even clinics in the rural areas will also increase so that could then also affect outreach and community health services, things like immunization campaigns, maternal health visits and disease surveillance in general.,” he said.
Then the patient cost, transport cost also, obviously will increase in terms of bus fare, transport fare, but at national level and government level, there will also be pressure on the health budgets.
The government needs to allocate more funds to cover operational costs and running expenses operational costs.
He said, there is a broader negative externality through an increase in inflation in general, which could also then affect even the other social determinants of health, so that also, in a way, directly, indirectly, increases the overall burden on the healthcare system.
“Healthcare system costs will be affected, but service accessibility will also affected, and the delivery of essential health services is also affected and those in the low-income population categories are the worst affected,” he said.