Chief among their grievances were the delays in payment of
salaries and benefits such as school fees, fuel allowances, policies as well as
the non-payment of operating licence renewal fees for the doctors and
non-payment of locums, which have affected revenue generation and staff leave.
They said this effectively meant that all medical
practitioners at PSMI were currently operating illegally, a situation they said
could have negative ramifications on their careers.
The employees also claimed that directors at Premier
Service Holding Company (PSHC) were wasting money meant for health service
delivery at PSMI facility in frivolous activities that had no benefit to the
patients or the staff.
PSMI is the largest private health care services provider
in the country running hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and labs across the
country.
The company serves at least 90 percent of Zimbabwe’s civil
servants, who are members of the Premier Services Medical Aid Society (PSMAS)
and other private clients through its facilities.
The Herald is in possession of correspondence from the
employees through their lawyer, to the PSMI managing director Tafadzwa Gutu and
PSMI chairman of Wellington Tutisa and the chairman of PSMAS Jeremiah Bvirindi
on different occasions outlining their grievances.
In a letter written to the PSMI managing director Mr Gutu
on March 23, the employees questioned if the company was still a going concern
in light of its apparent failure to meet its obligations to various service
providers as well as failure to buy the necessary stocks for operations to
continue uninterrupted.
They said most of their concerns about staff welfare had
not been resolved despite having been raised some time ago.
“In light of the above genuine issues causing uncertainty
among employees, an urgent meeting is hereby requested with you and worker
leaders from various levels where the author of this letter is also invited for
frank discussions on way forward for there is a feeling that if issues are not
resolved, PSMI will be doing a disservice to its employees, Government and
Zimbabweans at large given its strategic position in the provision of health
services to people and Government officials,” read part of the letter.
Following the correspondence, the PSMI board on March 30
sent out a circular that the holding company would now work with the company’s
management to come up with a recovery plan.
However, the employees said the handholding of PSMI by the
holding company served no purpose but to duplicate directors’ roles and allow
further abuse of funds at the expense of the workers.
They claimed PSHC was one of the white elephants draining
resource from PSMI.
On Friday last week, PSMI adopted a co-payment system where
every member of PSMAS is required to pay US$5 or ZWL$1 050 before receiving
treatment or services.
Workers believe the co-payment is a clutch at making ends
meet by the company.
“This is very unfair to members particularly Government
employees who had always been paying their monthly contributions without
anything in return. Workers are of the view that the money being charged as
co-payments is meant for nothing other than boosting management pockets,” the
workers alleged in a letter addressed to the board chair Mr Bvirindi by the
medical professional and Allied Workers Union of Zimbabwe on Monday.
In response to emailed questions from The Herald, PSHC public relations, communications and
brand manager Mr Arthur Choga said the recent introduction of a co-payment had
been necessitated by the need to cover costs of providing the services, which
had escalated over time resulting in a negative working capital gap in PSMI.
“Subscriptions on the medical aid side continue to track
the official rate while costs are being incurred based on parallel market
rates, making it difficult for PSMI to meet obligations as they fall due. Given
these pressures and the target market’s inability to afford market related
subscriptions, PSMI therefore introduced co-payments to assist in meeting
operating expenses,” he said.
He admitted that PSMI had fallen behind with its salary and
benefits obligations dating back to between six and nine months but efforts to
liquidate the arrears were underway.
“Our employees remain one of our greatest assets. We
appreciate their resilience and commitment in the face of adversity. The
pandemic itself came with a lot of trauma to healthcare employees,
unfortunately, with the same pandemic came depressed economic performance which
did not spare PSMI given its peculiar challenges, which include the sub optimal
subscription at PSMAS that resulted in a downstream negative working capital
gap at PSMI, which continued to accommodate PSMAS members regardless.
“PSMI prioritised the preservation of employment
resultantly current compensation levels are now below expectations. We
appreciate that the current compensation levels are not as competitive as they
used to be and once performance has improved in light of our various
interventions, we are going to address this issue,” said Mr Choga.
He said the decision by the PSMI board to ask the holding
company to assist in the revival of the company had been necessitated by the
availability of expertise within the holding company’s management team who have
previously successfully grown and managed PSMI.
“Since this expertise was already within the Group and
given the financial situation of PSMI, this was the most prudent and cost
effective strategy to quickly turnaround the fortunes of PSMI,” he added.
He said the move was not a duplication of roles as PSMI had
its own management which oversaw the day to day operations while the holding
company’s mandate was to advise entities in keeping with what is required in
corporate governance.
There have been reports that the organisation’s investments
into business ventures such as microfinance and gold prospecting through
Premier Services microfinance and Clay Dust, was an abuse of funds and
diverting attention from the core business.
Mr Choga said the two entities had been formed after board
resolutions on 17th of December 2019, and 1st of June 2018 to preserve value of
the fund.
“No money was taken from business operations to make these
investments. It is best practice for organisations globally to diversify by
penetrating unrelated markets in order to grow their revenue streams, reduce
concentration and ensure sustainability of their operations.
‘‘These unrelated investments are done with the full
concurrence, ratification and approval of the shareholders through the AGM,
respective boards and financiers. These investments therefore have no negative
effect on the operations of current investment of healthcare service provision
and insurance,” he said. Herald
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