According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, citizens living in rural Zimbabwe have no other option than barter when attempting to receive medical care.
Patients provide the crops they grow and the animals they raise - food that feeds the thousands of patients who use the hospital - and the hospital tends to their wounds, treats their illnesses and delivers their babies. Its two doctors and 15 nurses see about 6000 patients a month and have put 2000 people with AIDS on life-saving antiretroviral medicines.
The hospital receives limited support from a government that is itself hurting for revenue. It also gets up to $US10,000 a month from American and British churches, enabling it to charge patients less. It charges $US1 - or a quarter bucket of peanuts - to see the doctor while a government hospital typically charges $US4, in cash only.
Read more at http://www.smh.com.au/world/if-you-pay-peanuts-you-get-zimbabwes-shell-of-a-health-system-20101219-191y5.html
