“It is my plea once again that we be given sufficient funding so that we are able to buy medication,” Parirenyatwa said.
“A lot of people suffer from diabetes, cancer and hypertension. They should easily access these drugs from Government hospitals.
ZIMBABWE’S health care system requires a massive $1,3 billion annually to be able to deliver adequate services to a nation battling a number of chronic ailments among its poor, a cabinet minister has said.
Addressing Senators in the upper house Thursday, health minister David Parirenyatwa pleaded with legislators to help pass a budget that takes into account the plight of citizens condemned to health-related deaths due to a recurrently tiny allocations year in, year out.
“We once reached a stage where we gathered together with experts in the Ministry to see what will be the required amount for the Ministry per year and what the cost of health care per year is in the public sector in Zimbabwe and we came up with a figure of $1.3 billion annually.
“...Whether the money is there or not but this is the figure that is required. Zimbabwe needs to know about it.
“We require $1.3 billion per year which helps us with infrastructure, equipment, staffing and drugs. That is what the health system of Zimbabwe requires.”
Zimbabwe’s annual budget stands 
at an average $4 billion with nearly 90 percent of it going towards paying the country’s bloated civil service.
In his 2017 budget allocations, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa gave the ministry of health $281,976,000 - a pittance compared to the $1,3 required by the ministry.
The allocated amount was a mere 6,88 percent of the entire budget on $4,1 billion and a further drop from the 8,27 percent allocated to the same ministry last year.
The Zimbabwean government has failed to comply with the 15 percent minimum pledge to health agreed in the 2001 Abuja Declaration.
In April 2001, African Union countries met and pledged to set a target of allocating at least 15% of their annual budget to improve the health sector and urged donor countries to scale up support.
Since becoming substantive finance minister in 2013, Chinamasa has repeatedly lamented the lack of fiscal space in a national purse largely dependent on tax and donor support.
However, in remarks he gave during the upper house’s question and answer session, Parirenyatwa appealed to the legislators to help strengthen his ministry's pleas for more funding.
“It is my plea once again that we be given sufficient funding so that we are able to buy medication,” he said.
“A lot of people suffer from diabetes, cancer and hypertension. They should easily access these drugs from Government hospitals.
“A lot of people are dying because they go and seek attention from hospitals and are not able to accept it. I urge this august Senate to give us more in terms of budget allocation.”
Zimbabwe’s shaky health system has often been exposed during epidemics such as the 2008-9 cholera outbreak which killed over 4,000 locals and left over a hundred thousand hospitalised.
The country has often depended on humanitarian assistance in terms of drugs, disease awareness programmes and expertise from outside to prevent further harm.