The fake doctors are said to moving around claiming to be
from government offering free scan services and asking patients to pay for
herbs that one would have been prescribed.
Speaking during a media engagement meeting held at Gutu
Rural Hospital on August 2, Chibura said they received reports about a team of
fake doctors who were moving around the district claiming to be from the
Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC).
“We received reports about a team of fake doctors that is
currently in the district targeting mainly rural areas claiming to be from the
government. The team is allegedly offering free scan services and ordering
people to buy prescribed herbs from them but we do not know them as we did not
give any one a clearance letter at district level to do such campaigns. This
team targeted remote areas such as Chingombe, Muchekayaora, Chepiri, Munyikwa,
Mazuru, Magombedze Chitsa and Chinyika,” said Chibura.
He said this was affecting members of the community as
people were asked to abandon their prescribed medication from hospital in favor
of their often expensive herbs.
“This incident greatly affected us as we faced challenges
during our integrated community outreach campaigns. We found out that people
were asked to change their prescribed medication from the hospital in favor of
the herbs that they would have been prescribed. This is a great challenge as
the community lost their money and lives,” added Chibura.
Chibura further said they had communicated with village
health workers to raise awareness so that people will be aware of how the
government operates and prevent such scenarios.
“We have communicated with our Village Health Workers to
raise awareness within their respective communities so that the community knows
that government services and medication are for free they are not supposed to
be asked to pay for any services and to know that if there is any government
program it will be communicated through village health workers and local
clinics,” he said.
The meeting was aimed at enlightening members of the media
on how they should report health related stories to prevent causing alarm and
panic to the public.
Chibura said as part of the Risk Communication and
Community Engagement (RCCE) the media was very important in circulating
information regarding health related issues thus the media should verify facts
and report correct information.
“Under the RCCE pillar, the media is very important in
circulating health related information by raising awareness and alerts. When
doing so I encourage the media to verify facts and statistics with relevant
authorities before publishing to avoid causing alarm and panic to members of
the public, said Chibura.
He also encouraged journalists to be careful with their
headlines when it comes to health reporting and to be careful when dealing with
statistics.
“I also encourage you to be careful on the issue of
headlines because these may have negative impacts in the community and some may
have a negative impact on the country’s reputation. Also you should be very
careful when dealing with statistics and names,” he said.
He further urged the media and district health officials to
work together to make sure the community gets correct information regarding the
particular topic.
The MoHCC is holding media engagements across the province
and have so far covered Chivi, Masvingo and Gutu where similar calls were made.
Masvingo Mirror
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