EcoSure, a subsidiary of the Strive Masiyiwa owned Econet
has stepped in to rescue the situation, with the insurance firm announcing that
it was equipping medical staff with protective personal equipment (PPE),
providing them with life and health insurance and offering them safe transport
to and from work daily, for the coming 12 months.
“In the situation we find ourselves in as a nation, we want
to ensure all frontline medical staff are fully protected and we are putting in
place measures that give them confidence as they carry out their noble duty of
primary patient care and as they save lives,” Eddie Chibi, the chief executive
officer of Cassava Smartech, the parent company of the EcoSure insurance
business.
Doctors and nurses at public health institutions have gone
on strike demanding PPE clothing and the EcoSure initiative could help end the
impasse between the government and the health workers.
EcoSure general manager, Godwin Mashiri said his
organisation would immediately begin the process of providing support for all
medical practitioners – doctors and nurses – who go to work and attend to their
duties at this critical time.
“We are offering free personal protective equipment for all
doctors and nurses who attend to their duties at this very critical time. We
are also offering free Vaya transport to both nurses and doctors, so they can
commute to and from work in safe and sanitized vehicles,” he said.
Vaya recently announced that it had taken the lead in
promoting safe transportation during the COVID-19 epidemic by training its
drivers in strict health and safety protocols, and equipping them with
sanitisers and face masks, among other interventions.
“We will also be immediately offering life and health
insurance in the form of a cash benefit of $500 per day, for each day of
hospitalisation, and a lump sum benefit of $50 000 in the event of permanent
disability and eventual death caused by any accident,” Mashiri said.
He said the package would include a cash benefit of up to
$30 000 in the event of death arising from any other cause apart from
accidents.
“On top of that, we will also be offering 100% education
scholarships for the children of any medical practitioner who takes up this
offer to work in public hospitals or clinics at this time, should they pass on
during this period.
Mashiri said the education scholarship would be
administered by Higherlife Foundation through its Capernaun Scholarship.
Higherlife Foundation – which is funded by the Econet group
of companies and by Delta Philanthropies, the social impact vehicle of the
Econet founder, Strive Masiyiwa and his family – has already been supporting
hundreds of doctors who signed up to a fellowship scholarship launched late
last year.
The fellowship, worth over $100 million, was offered amid a
crippling nationwide strike by doctors that had left thousands of patients
desperate and stranded.
Higherlife said, at the time, that its main focus was the
plight of the patients, and that it sought to capacitate healthcare personnel
to be able to treat patients.
EcoSure has also partnered with city councils around the
country to provide hand washing basins in urban public places to promote
sanitation and cleanliness that help prevent the spread of the virus.
“As a business, we are taking different measures to curb
the spread of the coronavirus both at our own workplaces and in public spaces,”
Chibi said. Newsday
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