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Sibongile Maruta Herald Reporter
Government is committed to supporting health institutions in the face of challenges in the importation of drugs and medical equipment due to foreign currency constraints in order to achieve universal health coverage, an official has said.

Speaking during the Avenues Clinic graduation ceremony held in Harare on Friday, Ministry of Health and Child Care permanent secretary Dr Gerald Gwinji said Government was working to create a better environment for health service provision, attractive enough to promote medical value travel and inward tourism for health care institutions.

Dr Gwinji said Government would always support local private institutions that were complementing the public sector by treating more people.

“The Ministry of Health and Child Care fully appreciates the challenges faced by health institutions in the importation of drugs and medical equipment due to foreign currency constraints,” he said.

“As a ministry, we are happy to support local private institutions that are complementing the public sector and need to be capacitated to generate more foreign currency for the nation.

“We acknowledge that the Avenues Clinic has made significant strides in this regard. The transformation of our institutions into better facilities that can afford more people a chance to receive treatment is always a welcome development.”

Dr Gwinji commended the Avenues Clinic for partnering Government and City of Harare to contain the cholera outbreak by donating goods to the Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases Hospital in Harare.

“Let me commend the Avenues Clinic for continuing to partner with the Government in health initiatives not only in training, but in service provision and public health care,” he said.

“The timely response and intervention of Avenues Clinic to the cholera outbreak in Harare’s high-density suburbs of Glen View and Budiriro shows you take a role as part of the health system quite seriously.”