Corpses are decomposing at Marondera Provincial Hospital
due to non-functional mortuary refrigerators, it has emerged.
This was revealed by Marondera Central legislator Caston
Matewu (MDC Alliance) during a Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ)-organised
community reporting workshop at the weekend, where he said his office had since
invited Health minister Obadiah Moyo to visit the institution.
“I did a tour of Marondera Provincial Hospital late last
year alongside my colleague Honourable (Brightness) Mangora (Proportional
Representation). Dead bodies are decomposing at the hospital and one can smell
the odour about 20m away from the mortuary. We later realised that only one of
the seven refrigerators was working, the other six are dead. It is a crisis,”
he said.
The medical institution is the major referral hospital in
Mashonaland East province. Matewu added that he had since approached government
over the situation, with Moyo expected to visit the hospital anytime soon.
“I wrote to government urging them to shut down the
mortuary and engage local private funeral parlours to arrest the problem. I
engaged the Health and Child Care minister who is expected to visit the
hospital soon. I also spoke to Energy minister (Fortune) Chasi so that he
ensures the hospital gets constant power supply as well as water, among other
things,” Matewu said.
According to a survey conducted by NewsDay, each
refrigerator has a carrying capacity of three bodies. It is reported that the refrigerator is now carrying six
bodies.
Marondera Provincial Hospital has not been spared by the
current health system collapse, which has also seen the institution going
without enough medical
doctors.
Some of the medical personnel have since left for Europe
following the doctors’ strike over low salaries and poor working conditions.
A top official at the hospital yesterday confirmed the
crisis and said all relevant authorities had since been alerted.
“It is a crisis. There is only one fridge working. The
issue has since been reported to the minister through the PMD [provincial
medical director]. The Minister of State for Provincial Affairs (Apollonia
Munzverengi) was also apprised of the matter last year. The officials here even
recommended the closure of the mortuary,” the official said on condition of
anonymity. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment