‘2020 marks death of public health system’
BY PHYLLIS MBANJE
In the midst of severe economic unrest, the Zimbabwean healthcare system has been disintegrating and coming apart at the seams over the years and 2020 took it a notch higher with the advent of COVID-19.
As the curtain comes down on 2020, health stakeholders and workers reflected on the sector in the face of COVID-19 as well as the inherent challenges. Many said the year marked the death of the public health system.
Enock Dongo (Zimbabwe Nurses Association)
“We were the hardest hit as frontline workers. Nurses are the first port of call and that means increased exposure. When COVID-19 cases started being recorded in Zimbabwe, we had no clue as nurses about the novel disease. We were blank. We had just read about it but lacked the appropriate knowledge to manage cases. A few trainings were done but many were not trained. We estimate that only a quarter received the training.