7 million have no access to hospitals: Biti

Source: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

10/06/2013
by Staff Reporter

HALF Zimbabwe’s population of 13 million people is not using conventional medicine due to poverty, according to Finance Minister Tendai Biti.
As a result, thousands of Zimbabweans are dying needlessly every year as they seek help from traditional healers and self-styled prophets.

Biti, speaking during the launch of the Poverty Income Consumption and Expenditure Survey Report last Thursday, said the government had to review its expenditure to increase health services access for the poor.

He said: “Half of the country’s population is not using modern health services and facilities, varikuenda kumapostori nen’anga, the marabous and the igwes.

“It’s frightening that after 33 years of independence, 50% of the population does not have access to modern health facilities.”

President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last year spent US$45.5 million on foreign travel, accounting for 1.2 percent of total public expenditure.

Biti says the government should urgently cut non-essential expenditure – including foreign travel for government officials – and redirect resources to the health sector.