With essential drugs and specialised care expensive or unavailable, poor Zimbabweans opt to travel long distances to seek treatment.

At 5pm at the Victoria Falls border post, Margaret – who has a 24-hour day pass to be in Zambia – is in a rush to return home to Zimbabwe before dusk.

This is not the first time Margaret, 53, has travelled from her rural home, 120km (75 miles) away, to cross into Zambia for the day. It has become a routine trip she makes monthly to buy medication for her husband who has an inflammatory condition that affects the outer covering of the eye.

The prescribed medication is barely available on the shelves of pharmacies in Hwange district, where she lives. Of what is there, the high cost makes it inaccessible to many, she said.

“The same medication is expensive back home. If you add transport and medication costs altogether, it is still cheaper to come to Zambia. Also most times, some of this medication is not readily available which risks the patients’ lives,” said Margret.

Zimbabwe’s economy has been hit hard by decades of economic crises and soaring inflation. Many basics are not as easily available or affordable, and Zimbabweans themselves have lost confidence in the local currency.

At the border, Margret follows a small queue, before officials check her luggage and papers without much trouble and stamp her 24-hour pass – a process that takes less than 10 minutes.

A commuter bus operator who ferries passengers back and forth to the border area, said a significant number of people make the daily trip from Hwange – a community of some 21,300 people – to buy medicines or visit hospitals in Zambia.