Online Reporter
Bulawayo Bureau
THE Ministry of Health and Child Care is set to formally employ and integrate 22 000 village health workers into the civil service, aiming to enhance the capacity of the healthcare sector by 2030.
The initiative will facilitate more efficient health information flow from rural areas to national levels.
This was revealed by Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Sleiman Kwidini on the sidelines of the launch of the neglected tropical diseases master plan in Bulawayo on Friday.
“Our village health workers are the key people in the ministry because they are the people who live in the communities, especially at village level. The nature of their jobs has made us, as the Government, see that they are key players that need to be motivated too in their line of work; that is why we have signed a contract where we are saying we have to double the health workforce by 2030.
“Through doubling the health workforce, the village health workers are the other people who are going to be included in this compact structure where for now we are assuming to adopt about 22 000, funds permitting, from 2024 to 2027,” said Deputy Minister Kwidini.
He emphasised the importance of incorporating village health workers into the framework for achieving universal health coverage, stating that without their involvement, the ministry would struggle to make significant progress in its operations.
The deputy minister said the village health workers would be included on the ministry’s payroll through the Salary Services Bureau (SSB).
“They will now be full civil servants who will go to the bank every month; they need to be involved in the implementation of programmes.
“These people are the first people to identify or see who is not well and possibly what kind of disease they have in the community. By doing so, they are the ones who take statistics and information to the skilled health workers, especially the rural health workers,” said Deputy Minister Kwidini.
The village health workers would also be capacitated to ensure that they continue playing their roles with added knowledge.
“There is upskilling of village health workers that is taking place as it is; the Ministry of Health has partnered with its development partners who are doing the training to capacitate them in information and knowledge, especially on how to handle issues of health in the community.
“So, definitely there is going to be more training that will see our village health workers getting capacitated, to ensure that they do their work more efficiently than before,” said the deputy minister.
He noted that certain diseases often remain hidden within communities, but village health workers play a crucial role in identifying many health issues before individuals seek care at health institutions.
“Our rural communities sometimes assume some diseases are a result of witchcraft but it is the village health workers who assist in dispelling some myths and identifying diseases within the communities and they bring health personnel to verify the diseases and speak to communities on their misconceptions about some illnesses,” he said.
According to the World Health Organisation, access to community health services can prevent millions of deaths annually and substantially reduce patients’ out-of-pocket costs.
Village health workers are vital to the country’s health delivery system as they interface with communities on a day-to-day basis.
During the Covid-19 outbreak, they played a critical role, which expanded beyond engaging communities in prevention and protective measures, to include detection and responses in containing the pandemic.
