Sidumisile Mabena
Robin Muchetu
THE Ministry of Health and Child Care is touring district hospitals in Matabeleland North Province to assess their operations, identify challenges and map a way forward to address them.
The tour, which started at Nkayi District Hospital, is being led by the Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care, Mr Sleiman Kwidini, who said the visits are being carried out by supervisory teams to ensure that patient care remains a priority.
“We want to see if the patients are eating right, if they are getting medication readily at the institution and any problems that are facing. We want patients to be treated nearest to their homes rather than going far away from Sivomo in Nkayi to get treated at Parirenyatwa in Harare,” he added.
He said health practitioners from outside the province will soon be coming to conduct outreach programmes in the communities so that patients do not have to travel long distances to access medical assistance.
“As our President said no one and no place will be left behind. We want the people in rural areas to get all services available at bigger hospitals in the city too too,” added Deputy Minister Kwidini.
At Nkayi District Hospital, staff highlighted that they are facing challenges with their X-ray machine.
“We heard that their x-ray machine is not functioning and we want to make sure that they get the machine as soon as possible.
We know we have some which have been procured and awaiting distribution and Nkayi one of the beneficiaries of the machines so that we maintain the core business of the primary health care,” said Mr Kwidini.
The Ministerial supervisory team will on Wednesday tour Binga District Hospital.
@NyembeziMu
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