Accommodation crisis hits Nkayi hospital

expecting mothers, a kitchen and toilets.
Speaking in Nkayi recently, hospital matron Mrs Lucy Moyo said at the worst times the 18-bed compound was forced to accommodate nearly 50 expecting mothers at once. The hospital was forced to turn a kitchen into a bedroom.
“This resulted in us constructing a temporary makeshift kitchen currently being used by the mothers.
“With adequate funding, we hope to construct a better kitchen close to where they sleep,” Mrs Moyo said.
The current kitchen used by the expectant mothers is about 200 metres away from the sleeping rooms, which the mothers described as inconvenient during rainy season or at night. Mrs Moyo further said work towards construction of toilets was in progress but appealed for assistance to complete the project.
Most women, she said, avoided clinics for hospitals hence putting pressure on the district hospitals. Pregnant women interviewed said there was only one toilet and sometimes their dormitories accommodated up to eight people at a time.
The rooms are all furnished with three beds, sparsely arranged but when demand for accommodation is high, extra mattresses are placed under the metre long beds while others sleep in the passages.
While mothers interviewed had no complaints about the status of their accommodation, they reiterated that they wanted the kitchen close to their dormitory and construction of the toilets should be quickened.
“We only have one toilet and one bathroom serving the whole compound. You know that with our condition, one needs to use the toilet frequently, but with the current situation we end up going behind the blocks to relieve ourselves,” said Mrs Sidelile Ndlovu of Gwamba village.
She urged the hospital administration to treat the toilet issue as a priority, so as to avert possible outbreaks. The United Nations Population Fund has been assisting Government to revitalise mothers waiting shelters’ in a bid to reduce maternal and neonatal complications and deaths.
The delay in reaching to a health facility has been cited as one of the reasons why maternal deaths and complications have been on the increase especially in rural areas where women travel more than five km to a health facility – hence the revitalisation of mothers waiting shelters.