PARLIAMENTARY Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care chairperson Ruth Labode has blasted Vice President Constantino Chiwenga of double standards after he banned government officials from seeking medical attention outside the country and yet he frequents China for specialist treatment.

Chiwenga’s aide was recently admitted at a top Chinese health facility after falling ill to Covid-19.

In September last year he said government was no longer going to fund state officials seeking outside health care treatment.

“The fact that the vice president is seeking medical treatment outside the country is double standards. It is double standards, the minister in the first place should not have discouraged anybody seeking health tourism, because everywhere in the world there is health tourism,” Labode said.

“The British people go to Thailand for certain treatments, they go to India. You find that in Africa people are going to all sorts of places, people move to South Africa some to Zambia or Ethiopia for treatment. There was no need for the minister to discourage those who can afford going for health tourism,” she said.

She also urged Zimbabwean citizens to be vaccinated as the country’s health system is currently under stress.

“The health system is currently under a lot of pressure we are under pressure because we have shortages of drugs, infrastructure problems and we have a very demotivated health force which is underpaid, that’s why we should push for vaccinations. We cannot afford the situation which happened to India that hospitals were overwhelmed we cannot cope. We need to be vaccinated so that when people are infected by Covid-19 they will have mild symptoms and the Covid will be managed at home,” she said.

— NewZimbabwe

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