Parirenyatwa Hospital-based neurosurgeon Aaron Musara has
accused the institution’s department of anaesthesia and clinical medicine of
neglecting and refusing to attend to patients in need of urgent surgical
operations.
He said this had resulted in the unnecessary death of many
patients at the country’s biggest referral hospital.
Musara made the remarks in his court application in which
he is seeking an order to compel the hospital’s authorities to nullify an
adverse report against him which it authored and kept in his personal file.
The report suggests that the surgeon carried out an
unprocedural and inappropriate operation on a patient despite the fact that the
hospital’s head of anaesthesia and clinical medicine refused to assist him.
“This conduct also poses serious emotional and
psychological challenges to surgical teams as sometimes patients die in our
full view due to delayed and/or cancelled surgical operations occasioned by the
absence of anaesthetic services…in December 2018, I lost a patient, by the name
Gloria Shambare, who we had failed to operate on for 52 days due to persistent
refusal by anaesthetists to render their services” Musara said.
Musara, who is also a senior lecturer in the neurosurgery
unit at the University of Zimbabwe said he was now being tormented by the
hospital’s authorities after taking an independent decision to administer
general anaesthesia on one Shadreck Musekiwa.
He said this was after the hospital’s anaesthetic team
refused to anaesthetise the patient on the basis that they wanted to attend
lectures.
“I further explained to him the urgent need to operate on
the patient on the day in question. I further pleaded with him to put the
patient to sleep to avoid the emotional assault that comes with watching a
patient who can potentially recover deteriorate right before us,” Musara said
in his affidavit.
“He (head of anaesthesia) advised that the operation was to
be cancelled as he had also briefed his consultant and they had made a decision
to cancel the operation…he walked out of the operating room, leaving my team
and I stranded.”
Musara said with a full appreciation that the patient was
only left to the surgical team and no specialised anaesthetic services
available, he took the bold decision to administer general anaesthesia upon
Musekiwa and the team carried out a successful operation.
However, after Musara’s successful operation on his
patient, the head of the division of anaesthesia and clinical medicine, lodged
a complaint with the hospital’s acting clinical director, Aspect Jacob
Maunganidze, accusing Musara of misconduct in the manner he had handled
Musekiwa’s case.
“To my surprise, I was served with a letter on August 8,
2019 where, inter alia, the second respondent ruled that when I administered
general anaesthesia upon Musekiwa on June 5, 2019, I acted in an unprocedural
and inappropriate manner. He further advised that the communication would be
kept in my personal file for future reference,” he said.
Musara further said Musekiwa’s case was not isolated in
that it was actually the habit of the division of anaesthesia and clinical care
medicine for consultants and students to provide services only up to 1pm.
“They abandon work between 1pm and 4pm citing very flimsy
reasons like attending lectures and meetings. This is inspite of the fact that
the operation list for the hospital runs from 8am to 4pm. Thus, from 1pm
surgical operations are cancelled due to absence of anaesthetic services,”
Musara said.
The matter is pending. Newsday
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