Masvingo Provincial, the biggest referral hospital serving
1,7 million people in the province has been running without oxygen for some
time now and gasping patients don’t survive, The Mirror
has been told.
A source said lucky patients with relatives among nurses
and doctors have oxygen cylinders brought for them from private surgeries and
returned immediately after resuscitation.
Oxygen at Masvingo Provincial is only found in the theatre,
added the source.
In addition, the institution is facing a myriad of problems
including critical food shortages. Recently patients went for three days
getting just one meal a day.
“The hospital ran out of meal-mealie and sugar and patients
could not get their 5am porridge, 10am tea and 12pm sadza. They just got one
meal at 4pm which was sadza and matumbu. The situation is hell for patients
particularly those who don’t have relatives who visit them,” said a medical
practitioner who declined to be named.
The source also said that the hospital is no longer
providing bread to patients. They have tea without milk or bread, said the
source.
As a result vendors are now moving right into the wards
selling maputi, chimodho (home-made bread), roasted groundnuts and boiled maize
cobs
“No one has the
energy to bar these vendors from the wards because if we do, patients will
starve to death,” said the practitioner.
The hospital also no longer provides ambulances for
patients referred to bigger hospitals. The patients have to organise themselves
and raise money to buy fuel for an ambulance.
There is no water at the hospital and relatives are
bringing water to bath patients. The situation means patients can go for days
without water. There is also no power at the hospital.
The hospital has no film for X-ray and doctors have to
scrutinise X-ray pictures from the computer.
“This means that X-rays are only taken when there is power
and the doctors can only read them when the computers are on and it means
patients are having to wait week-on-ends to get X-rays taken and read by the
doctors,” said the source. Masvingo Mirror
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