Admire Chatindo
The situation in government and council health institutions has reached deplorable levels, with church health facilities not being spared as a case of the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe (RCZ) Gutu Mission Hospital which has only one incubator in its maternity section.
The machine is crucial to save lives of infants who are born prematurely and could be a disaster if more than one infant needs the service at the same time.
There was a case of a woman who delivered premature twins babies and the Mission Hospital had to take turns to incubate them and luckily they both survived.
One can imagine the disaster if they were born from different mothers and that would definitely mean a hard time for nurses to control the issue of the incubator for each mother who would be caring for her own child.
RCZ health secretary Samuel Mhungu said the situation was not good and said they were appealing for help in that regard and many other challenges facing the referral hospital.
“We only have one incubator and if it happens that we have for example, seven mothers who deliver premature babies at the same time, we would then resort to them taking turns to incubate their babies and this endangers the lives of the infants,” said Mhungu.
He said another challenge they faced was that of water saying the taps were dry and that was not an ideal situation for a hospital.
“The other challenge that we are facing is that of water, as you can see, the taps are no longer functional and as a hospital facility it’s difficult to function without it.
“We are also having a challenge of shelter for our expecting mothers; as it stands we can house a limited number of waiting mothers in a small room and some of the conditions they are subjected to are not safe,” he said.
