By Staff Reporter
Reports from government have revealed that Masvingo Province is now home to 231 health facilities, a move that is meant to improve health service delivery in the province and nationwide.
This was revealed by Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Permanent Secretary Dr Addmore Pazvakavambwa at a press discussion organised by TellZim in Masvingo recently where he unpacked the state of the province in the health sector.
“Masvingo Province now has 231 health facilities. This could be disaggregated like 13 secondary health facilities, seven being mission hospitals, six government, three private. 12 rural hospitals, 14 mission clinics, 71 government clinics and 104 council clinics,” said Dr Pazvakavambwa.
Dr Pazvakavambwa said the increase on construction of health facilities subsequently had an effect on reducing the walking distance which has drastically reduced from an average of 20km to about 8km.
“The fact that these have been increased means there is an effect on the walking distances. The walking distance has been reduced remarkably in most cases five to eight kilometres yet before it was around 20km,” said Dr Pazvakavambwa.
On drug availability, the province is still lagging behind with a staggering average of 55-57 percent.
Women from the province and the rest of the nation have been complaining over walking long distances, especially during pregnancy to access health facilities which has resulted in some women in rural areas to opt for backyard maternity homes which has its own fair share of problems.
Villagers from Mushandike, Gwengavi and Makasi in Masvingo rural have raised concerns over access to health facilities citing that they had to travel for at least 10km to get a clinic which is disheartening as sometimes they only get prescription with no medications available at the clinics.
