Chronicle Editor
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
THERE has been improved service delivery at United Bulawayo Hospitals’ maternity department with the construction of two additional theatres doubling the capacity of Caesarean section operations resulting in reduced perinatal and maternal mortality.
The two theatres are part of the state-of-the-art Family Health Theatre (FHT) which has a recovery ward with the capacity of 15 patients. The FHT was constructed by the Government in partnership with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Sunday News on Friday visited the hospital and spoke to the clinical director Dr Harrison Rambanapasi who said the facility had improved service delivery since its opening in January 2023.
“The facility has two operating rooms. It also has a recovery area which can accommodate up to 15 patients, post operation. We are using it as a maternity theatre which means this is where we do Caesarean sections. We opened it in January 2023.
“The building was initially done with injection of capital from UNFPA. There was an old building which was there but UNFPA came in to assist us refurbish the building so that it could be turned into a theatre.
“The Government also came in with money for the construction and purchasing of some of the equipment which we are using in those theatres. Construction started in 2016 but progress stalled. From 2021 the Government started disbursing money so that we could complete the building and make it functional,” said Dr Rambanapasi.
He said before the construction of the facility, UBH had only one theatre for Caesarean sections which was straining operations at one of the referral hospitals.
“If we had a number of Caesarean sections that had to be done at the same time it became difficult as some of the emergencies had to wait while we were doing another emergency. You would find that some patients would come here and spend a week or two while waiting for their chance to get into the theatre.
“This is because you cannot do non-urgent Caesareans when you have emergencies. So, we would do the emergencies first and we had cases who would come from outside Bulawayo whom you cannot discharge so we would have a situation where we would have a lot of patients waiting for the Caesarean operations,” said Dr Rambanapasi.
The development came in handy as the number of patients who deliver at UBH literally doubled because of the re-zoning that was done last year and Dr Rambanapasi said the construction of the facility had since doubled the hospital’s capacity to conduct Caesarean sections.
“Before the construction of this new ward, we had a capacity to do a maximum of about 11 Caesarean section per day but now we can do 24 Caesarean sections in 24 hours. So, basically, our capacity has doubled,” said Dr Rambanapasi.
He said a single theatre created a huge backlog, creating a situation where there would be too many patients in the ward thereby compromising the quality of care.
“Secondly, if you have three emergencies at the same time and you only have one theatre, it means the other two emergences have to wait for hours while you clear the other. So, the outcome in terms of both the mother and the babies will not be very good in that kind of situation.
“Now we do not have a backlog of emergencies and they are being done as they come because we have two theatres running concurrently. We are now doing emergencies as they come resulting in a decrease in prenatal mortality and decrease in maternal mortality from the time we opened that ward,” said Dr Rambanapasi.
During a tour of the facility, patients expressed their gratitude and satisfaction over the services being offered now at the hospital.
A patient who spoke on condition of anonymity said she had experienced a miscarriage before at a different hospital, but the services she got from UBH were commendable.
“I have been to a different hospital before and unfortunately in my first pregnancy I suffered a miscarriage. At this hospital I can tell you, I was given the best service. I was operated this morning and I await to get further instructions from the doctors,” she said.
When the news crew got inside the recovery ward, 10 women were recovering from their beds while other beds were free to accommodate new patients. — @nyeve14
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