ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the nature of the individual dimensions of medical autonomy in Zimbabwe. It draws on the validity of theoretical conceptualizations of medical autonomy in the Zimbabwean context and T. J. Johnson’s model of the medical profession in colonial and post-colonial states in Africa. The chapter proposes a model of medical autonomy in post-colonial states in Africa. On assuming power in 1980, the post-colonial government proposed a number of heath policies intended to contribute towards the establishment of a racially desegregated, egalitarian and socialist society. Treatment of cash-paying, low-income patients limits the doctors’ clinical autonomy, as they have to be cost-conscious and sometimes settle for what they consider to be less efficacious alternatives in order to suit the patients’ financial situation. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
