Government’s air rescue ambulances were in no show when they were needed the most as Beitbridge District Hospital was stretched to the limit following Thursday’s national disaster which claimed 25 people.
Ten seriously
injured people among the 56 attended to at the Beitbridge Hospital were
transferred by road, enduring 200km and 321km to Gwanda and Bulawayo,
respectively.
Sections of
that road are extremely difficult to navigate.
Twenty-five
people died on Thursday morning — 17 on the spot and another eight on admission
at Beitbridge Hospital — when an Urban Connect bus was involved in an accident
with a haulage truck about 25km outside Beitbridge along the Harare road.
“This is when
we hoped to see the air rescue ambulances at work. If not at such a disaster,
when then? Some of the things said are just deceitful and embarrassing,” said a
Beitbridge resident.
Beitbridge
Rural District Council and Beitbridge Municipality altogether contributed 120
litres of fuel for ambulances to ferry the injured.
In 2023 soon
after the arrival of the choppers, government said operationalisation of air
medical rescue services within Zimbabwe’s public health system was expected to
be “up and flying” by end of last year, starting with six helicopters across
four provinces.
Health and
Child Care minister Douglas Mombeshora told journalists during a handover
ceremony of Russian donated cholera commodities at the National Pharmaceutical
Company (NatPharm) that they had trained some pilots for medical air
evacuation.
“This is where
they should have come. Where else or it’s for a special type of people,” said
the Beitbridge resident.
Zimbabwe’s
leadership has been criticised for their seemingly carefree attitude towards
the health sector hit by a mass exodus of trained personnel to other countries
citing poor remuneration and hostile working conditions in backward
environment.
Meanwhile,
Beitbridge District Hospital was stretched to its limits on Thursday when it
handled 56 victims of the accident.
“Some nurses
who were on night duty did not knock off,” a senior nurse said.
“We were
overwhelmed since we are short-staffed.”
Calls by locals
to have the hospital upgraded to allow more staff have been ignored by
government.
The hospital
mortuary, designed for 12 people, was stretched and some bodies were laid on the
floor.
The hospital,
apart from Beitbridge’s 90 000 people, caters for a transit population of 14
000 people using Zimbabwe and the region’s busiest port at Beitbridge. Newsday
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