How telehealth is helping close the healthcare gap in rural Zimbabwe 

Nyazura, Zimbabwe – Bright fluorescent lights reflect off polished floors as Anymore Kadzunge returns for a routine check-up at a telehealth centre that helped diagnose the illness she had struggled with for months.

The 38-year-old farmer sits quietly as a nurse wraps a blood pressure cuff around her arm. Moments later, the machine beeps with the reading.

Only months earlier, Kadzunge had been struggling to work her fields or prepare meals for her family. She had spent three months experiencing chest pains and dizziness before walking 14km (8.7 miles) from her village of Chimbondi after a friend told her about the facility.

A nurse found her blood pressure was elevated and connected her with a doctor through a video consultation.

“The nurse tested my blood pressure, but it was extremely high,” Kadzunge told Al Jazeera. “I then spoke to a doctor through a video call.”

She was diagnosed with hypertension and prescribed medication, which she continues to take daily. Within days, her condition improved.

Bringing doctors closer

Kadzunge’s experience comes as efforts grow to bring doctors closer to rural communities in Zimbabwe, where years of economic hardship have left the public health system facing shortages of medicines, equipment and medical workers.

The programme was launched in 2024 by ZimSmart Villages, a Zimbabwean technology and innovation organisation, in partnership with NetOne, the country’s state-owned telecommunications company, and Zimbabwe Posts (Zimpost), the state-owned postal and courier service.

The programme connects patients in remote communities with healthcare professionals providing digital consultations, reducing the need for long journeys to see a doctor.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Zimbabwe had 1.7 doctors for every 10,000 people in 2022, compared with Africa’s average of 2.6.

For many rural residents, seeing a doctor in person requires expensive travel. Without the Nyazura centre, Kadzunge would have needed to travel 22km (13.7 miles) to Rusape, a town in eastern Zimbabwe, or 70km (43 miles) to Mutare, the capital of Manicaland province.

Ambulances are limited in many rural areas, forcing some families to transport sick relatives to health facilities using ox-drawn scotch carts, a common form of rural transport.

At the Nyazura centre, registered nurse Noreen Chimanya checks patients’ vital signs, including blood pressure, blood sugar levels and temperature, before arranging video consultations with doctors. She also provides prescribed treatment and refers serious cases to hospitals.

“When we opened in May 2024, telemedicine was something completely new in this community,” Chimanya told Al Jazeera. “People were used to speaking to doctors in person and being physically examined.”

Building trust required months of community outreach. Chimanya travelled to surrounding villages explaining how virtual consultations worked.

“They like it here because there are no queues,” she said. “At public health facilities, people spend hours waiting to be seen.”

The centre uses Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by United States aerospace company SpaceX, and a backup lithium battery to keep consultations running during frequent power cuts.

A lifeline for rural patients

According to ZimSmart Villages, by 2026 the organisation had established 28 telehealth centres across seven of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces and conducted more than 28,000 virtual consultations, including about 25,000 diagnostic tests.

Tawanda Njerere, the organisation’s cofounder and chief operations officer, told Al Jazeera the programme was designed to create digital health access points within existing post office infrastructure.

“Rather than requiring rural patients to travel 50km or more to urban health facilities, the programme establishes digital health access points embedded within existing post office infrastructure,” he said.

The centres charge between $2 and $10 for consultations, compared with $15 to $20 at many private clinics.

For some rural households, that difference can determine whether they seek treatment or wait.

For Proud Chimene, a vendor from nearby Chimene village, it made seeking treatment possible.

In July 2024, after experiencing unexplained weight loss, extreme thirst and persistent fatigue, she visited the Nyazura centre.

“The situation had deteriorated,” Chimene told Al Jazeera. “The nurse tested my blood glucose level and it was high. After speaking to the doctor through a video call, they put me on an intravenous drip for several hours. He also prescribed medicine that I take twice a day.”

She was diagnosed with diabetes.

“If it was not for this nearby telehealth centre providing access to a doctor at affordable fees, I would probably not have sought treatment at all,” she said.

Njerere said the programme focuses on detecting illnesses earlier by bringing screening services closer to communities. Digital health records and follow-up consultations also help patients manage chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes.

The centres have also diagnosed sexually transmitted infections and referred patients needing specialised care.

Challenges remain

Despite its growth, telehealth cannot replace all the services provided by traditional healthcare facilities.

Specialist services, particularly for eye health, mental health and complex chronic disease management, remain limited across Zimbabwe.

“The programme addresses this through partnerships with established eye-care providers and specialist networks, but specialist capacity remains a systemic constraint,” Njerere said.

In some rural communities, unfamiliarity with virtual consultations means building trust remains an ongoing challenge.

For Kadzunge, the measure of success is simple: she can return to the fields and daily routines that illness had taken away.

“I am healthy again,” she said. “Now I can go to the farm without scaring my family.”