The article talks about how the Zimbabwean government has open up credit accounts for rural medical clinics in order to give free medical assistance to pregnant mothers during birth.  These monies come from a specific fund designated to help out the country’s poor health care system.  The are several provinces of the country that have no choice but to abides by these laws because they are “receiving funding under the Result Based Financing — funded by the World Bank are no longer charging pregnant women deliveries.”  The World Bank sets guidelines and imposes checks on those guidelines to ensure that their monies are being used appropriately.  If not, the World Bank will retract their funds and then those services or institutions, in this case  medical care for pregnancy, will no longer be funded and have to finds means elsewhere.  The article continues to talk more about that even though the government has declared that all rural areas have to provide free births to pregnant women, there are reports that some areas are still charging a registering fee for the birth at check in.  This ranges from 5-20 dollars, which may not be a lot to us, but that is a significant amount of money to the Zimbabweans.  The government has reported that all rural medical clinics have set up the necessary financial accounts to receive such monies for proper compensation, but because the monies are only dispersed on a quarterly basis, the clinics might see a need for registration fees due to the lack of money in the account.

The Zimbabwean government has taken a big step in investing in their human capital by trying to prolong the health of their citizens.  This is evident by providing free birthing to pregnant women to ensure that they can have a safe and healthy birth.  This should reduce infant mortality within the country knowing that women have the ability to go to a medical clinic and have their child delivered safely.  No longer should they have to give birth in an un-sanitized environment.  The financial issue is whether these rural clinics are truly receiving their funds or it they are, is someone who is responsible for distributing the funds keeping it for them.  The article did not speak about any oversight in ensuring that the clinics are truly getting the monies that they deserve, but I am sure that it is extremely difficult to visit some of these clinics to truly determine the status of where the money is truly going to.  The government has to be curious if their funds are being used appropriately if there are still reports of registering fess still being assessed to pregnant women upon receive. 

http://allafrica.com/stories/201304120663.html

Matt Partridge

04/12/2013 at 4:57pm