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*"Government Doctors Demanding Bribes From Patients"*

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Doctors at government hospitals such as Bulawayo’s Mpilo Central Hospital are demanding bribes of up to US$700 to conduct surgeries on patients, a Member of Parliament has claimed.

Speaking in the National Assembly on Thursday while raising a matter of national interest, Makokoba MP James Sithole said bribe-taking by doctors in public health institutions is a sign of decay in the delivery systems. He said:

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> I will give an example of what is happening at Mpilo Central Hospital.

> I am referring to corrupt activities, which are unnecessarily exposing patients that are already suffering to more suffering and to premature death.

> There are patients that have been in the queue to go to the theatre since December 31, 2021, and they have not been able to have the opportunity to go to the theatre.

> The reason is that each time their allocated dates arrive to go to the theatre, excuses are given.

> They are told that there are no doctors to attend to them; they are told that there are no necessary materials in the theatre; they are told that their temperature is too high for them to go to the theatre.

> However, the truth is that it is because they would have not paid a bribe to doctors that range between (US)$300 to (US$) 700 or more.

> Surprisingly, doctors are able to carry out procedures using the same theatres on their private patients without paying anything to the hospital.

Sithole said that the X-ray machine and the scanner are said to be broken down most of the time adding that this is a pretext for sending patients to private facilities run by the same doctors. He said:

> So, if ever anyone is lucky at that time to be attended to, when they get to the other end where the doctor is looking at the X-ray picture, the patient is told the X-ray is not clear because the X-ray machine is faulty.

> So they are referred to facilities outside or private operators where they have to do another X-ray.

> On the scanning machine, pregnant mothers who have to do a scan are told that there is no jelly but surprisingly, again, the officer operating the scan will be having their private jelly.

> They only attend to their private patients from their private practice, but who come and use the hospital scan with the jelly.

> Anyone referred by Mpilo is told that there is no jelly, yet those coming from outside who will be their private patients will be attended to.

Sithole concluded by requesting that the Ministry of Health and Child Care carry out an investigation and bring a ministerial statement to the National Assembly.

National Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda said Sithole had raised “a fundamental and profound observation.”

He said Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who is also the Minister of Health and Child Care, would be asked to table a ministerial statement in the National Assembly to explain what was being done to curb corruption in public hospitals. | VicFallsLive

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