The Sunday News
Midlands Correspondent
THE Ministry of Health and Child Care will speed up the finalisation of the alcohol policy that seeks to regulate the amount of alcohol an individual can consume in a bid to curb road accidents, an official has said. In an interview on the sidelines of his tour of the Midlands Province last week Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa said alcohol abuse was the most common cause of road traffic accidents and there was need for a policy that would regulate the consumption of alcohol by individuals.
Dr Parirenyatwa said alcohol was now addictive to many people and did not only have health implications but social implications.
“Our alcohol control policy is still being crafted and we will deliberate on it.
“We want our stakeholders to contribute. Alcohol abuse worries us because it is one of the commonest causes of road traffic accidents.
“It is a health hazard. We are worried with the misuse of alcohol and you know that alcohol is now addictive you would want to continue consuming it. Our policy should take into account not only the health aspect but the social aspect as well,” he said.
The proposed Bill says “a person will not be allowed to have more than 0,08 percent blood alcohol concentration in his/her bloodstream and anyone found to have exceeded this level risks being arrested.”
Dr Parirenyatwa said the bill will be tabled before Cabinet.
Meanwhile, Dr Parirenyatwa said all polyclinics must be manned by doctors and must have X-ray facilities and be developed into bigger health institutions saying this will ease the burden on major referral hospitals.
He said Government was now decentralising health services to enable people to have access to health services at places that are most convenient to them.
“We want all polyclinics to be manned by doctors. We want them to have X-ray units.
“We are decentralising health services so as to ease the burden on major health centres,” he said.
