Zimbabwe: Government scraps maternity fees

Maternity fees will be scrapped at all government hospitals beginning next week as the government moves to improve maternal and child health care and end the detention of new mums at some across the country for failing to pay the fees.

Charging of maternity fees has been blamed for the country’s relatively high maternal and child mortality rates, prompting a campaign for their removal by Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe and other senior government officials.

The director of preventive services in the Ministry of Health, Gibson Mhlanga, said that all government provincial and central hospitals would stop charging the fees beginning next week. Worst hit by the crisis were people in rural areas, particularly women and children, who struggled to access life-saving maternal and child health care.

Source: www.newzimbabwe.com