By Gift Mashoko

Government through the Ministry of Health and Child Care has released $3.3mil into the Pharmaceutical industry, so as to improve the availability of medication and improve health service delivery.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care advised actors in the health sector that Government is committed to resourcing the industry and the RBZ has released $3.3million cash to pharmaceutical industry and other health institutions.

This is on top of the $6.7million already received on 11 October 2018, making a total of $9.9 million that has been disbursed so far.

The Government went on to say that it had agreed with various stakeholder representatives that the health sector would embark on the normalisation process and go back to the status quo through accepting different forms of payment for services (RTGS, eco-cash, swiping) and not demand US dollar, to accept medical aid cards, medical aid societies timely meeting the reimbursements for prescriptions redeemed by retailers and upholding the value of RTGS, that is US$ at 1:1.

Government appreciates responsive stakeholders and looks forward to stabilising and improving health services provision for the benefit of patients.

Most of the pharmacies have been demanding US dollars for their drugs, a move that caused misery to patients as the green pack is hard to come by.