HARARE – Premier Service Medical Investments (PSMI) hospital facilities in Harare finally re-opened Tuesday after treasury moved in again to render first aid and end months of their closure caused by cash flow challenges.
The clinics were forced to shut down after workers withdrew their labour over unpaid wages caused by financial problems experienced by the troubled health insurer’s parent company, Premier Service Medical Aid (PSMAS).
PSMAS, which was formed by civil servants, runs a medical insurance scheme for government workers, and has other health-related subsidiaries.
It runs clinics and hospitals around the country under PSMI, and has a membership of nearly one million, mostly government workers.
On Tuesday, the government announced it would pay off all PSMAS debts and ensure individuals found guilty of looting the health insurer are jailed.
This will not be the first time the government has rescued PSMAS after it released ZWL$4 billion to the medical society in November last year.
A visit to West End, Prestige hospitals, Fife Avenue Covid-19 stabilisation centre among some of the PSMI facilities in Harare confirmed the re-opening development with patients slowly trickling in.
Speaking on condition of anonymity as they are not permitted to address the media by their employer, workers at some of the health facilities confirmed they are back at work.
“We are happy to be back at work after closing for two months.
“We opened on May 2, 2023 but we are not serving patients because there is a problem with water supply,” said a worker at the Covid-19 Centre.
At Prestige, patients were still few while at West End in the Harare Avenues area, the number of patients was rising.
“As you can see, we are open. We are just waiting for patients who need our services. One should bring a PSMAS medical aid card and identity document then we serve you,” said another at West End.
