“The hospital
only provides a bed,” said a woman who had spent two agonising weeks nursing
her elderly mother. “We paid US$140 for blood tests and US$40 for medication.
An X-ray cost us again. Imagine if we didn’t have medical aid — this would be a
death sentence.”
US$40 is steep
in a country where over 90% are unemployed, according to trade unions, and only
8% have medical insurance.
Her voice
shook.
“The beds are
broken. The wheelchairs barely move. Even elderly patients now pay US$70 just
for admission. The place feels abandoned.”
That word —
abandoned — repeats itself at Sally Mugabe Central. It spills from caregivers
loitering in dim corridors, hoping their loved ones survive the night.
“My daughter
has been admitted here for two weeks,” said another relative.
“Doctors walk
past if you do not provide what they prescribed. I am relying on my relatives
to help cover the costs because the hospital provides no support. There is no
support, no humanity.”
This grim
picture sharply contrasts with the government’s claims. Deputy Health Minister
Sleiman Kwidini insisted this week that “everything is improving”.
“We are doing
everything to improve services,” he said. “We have not received any major
concerns from hospital administrators.”
On Wednesday,
he told Parliament that the citizens were "very happy" with the
service delivery in public hospitals.
“We are doing
wonders since 2018 to make sure the citizens receive quality care. What we are
doing is only known by the patients, not the social media participants. As we
speak right now, our citizens are very happy with the service delivery that we
are giving.”
But that
narrative fell apart in the hospital hallways, where relatives scramble for
basic painkillers and surgical gloves.
Outside Sally
Mugabe’s casualty unit, a man pacing nervously captured the national despair:
“The doctors
and nurses are not to blame. They are doing their best. But there are no
medicines, no equipment. If I had money, my father would be in a private
hospital — but I don’t.”
A collapsing
system now leans heavily on underpaid, overstretched staff. Nurses at Sally
Mugabe — Zimbabwe’s largest referral centre — recently staged a rare protest,
decrying conditions one union called “abject poverty.”
“Nurses are
earning about US$240 plus a few ZiG,” said Zimbabwe Nurses Association
president Enock Dongo. “That is not enough for a decent living. Government has
failed its workers.”
Dongo said
nurses, often blamed for delays and poor service, are simply trying to survive.
“They are
exhausted. They are working in a war zone without armour.”
And the war
zone analogy fits. In maternity wards, women deliver new life with no comfort.
In emergency rooms, accident victims lie untreated for hours. In cancer wards,
outdated machines stand still. Zimbabwe Independent
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