Close to R1 million is required to buy a new Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) machine at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo that will enable cancer patients to receive radiation sessions uninterrupted by power outages.
Patients
undergoing cancer treatment with the radiotherapy machine need continuous power
supply as the machinery is very sensitive to power fluctuations and any sudden
changes or fluctuations with power damages the machine, experts say.
Already, two of
the cancer treatment machines at the hospital are down. This emerged during a
visit to the referral hospital by Vice-President Kembo Mohadi on Friday who
directed the Treasury to urgently look into the issue and avail the R1 million
for the servicing of radiotherapy machines to save lives.
VP Mohadi said
critical cancer machinery that services the Southern region must always be
functional as patients are incurring huge costs travelling to places like South
Africa, India and other destinations.
Mpilo Central
Hospital chief medical officer, Dr Narcisius Dzvanga, said the UPS at Mpilo
Central Hospital requires 24 batteries to keep it functional and the batteries
now need to be replaced. He said according to quotations from South Africa, the
set of batteries cost just over R1 million.
Dr Dzvanga said
the hospital had been told to downsize their UPS machine to match that of
Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, a proposal that VP Mohadi vehemently rejected.
“That is about
US$100 000 needed for the machine. The machine was made like that and it has to
run like that. We need to get this machine running, we cannot fail to raise
this amount as a country,” said the Vice-President. “Why do they say it (UPS)
machine is too big? No, we do not want that, we want the US$100 000 and Mthuli
(Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion) has got to
act,” said VP Mohadi.
Almost 50
percent of the cancer patients that visit Mpilo Hospital require radiotherapy
but these are not being treated as the machines are down with revelations that
the radiotherapy machines were procured and left in storage for many years,
causing some of the faults and deterioration of the machines.
The machines
are said to have been locked up at Beira, Mozambique for three years before
they were eventually delivered to Bulawayo. All patients requiring radiotherapy
are being referred to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare and are having to endure
long waiting periods of up to five months as the hospital is overwhelmed by the
demand for the service.
VP Mohadi said
it was too much of a burden for one public institution to be treating cancer in
the country. Chronicle
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