adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
BULILIMA District is planning to establish a hospital as health facilities in the area are failing to meet demand. Speaking during a stakeholders’ annual meeting in Plumtree Town on Wednesday, Bulilima District Medical Officer Dr Nobert Singini said the area was being serviced by 15 clinics.
The meeting was attended by different Government departments and organisations.
“Bulilima is one of the largest districts in Matabeleland South with a population of 105 543 and has 22 wards. The whole district has only 15 health facilities leaving a high percentage of the population with difficulties in accessing health services.
“All health facilities are manned by at least three qualified staff and the district has a doctor ratio of 1:100 000, a nurse ratio of 67:100 000 and an environmental health technician’s ratio of 11:100 000,” he said.
Dr Singini said only five of the 15 health facilities offered maternity services.
“The fifth one which is in Sikhathini Clinic is a hall without beds, linen and lockers. This has resulted in high home delivery figures,” said Dr Singini.
He said the Ministry of Health and Child Care could not deploy specialists into the district unless there was a hospital.
“The district is also in need of an accountant, district health services administrator, district pharmaceutical manager and drivers to ensure smooth running of the health sector but this is not possible at the moment,” said Dr Singini.
He said the district was also handling a number of malnutrition cases due to an absence of nutritional supplements.
“We are treating a number of malnutrition cases although we have not compiled all the statistics. In the first half of the year 1 200 of the 18 270 babies who were weighed under the growth monitoring programme were below weight.
“Although the figure is not alarming, the greatest challenge we have is the provision of supplementary feeding to malnutrition patients as the district does not have any,” he said.
The district administrator who officially opened the meeting, Mrs Ethel Moyo said the immediate construction of a district hospital was crucial in addressing health challenges.
She also called for accessibility to schools to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
“Children are being deprived of success because of the distances they walk when going to school. We are talking of distances of up to
18 kilometres which are travelled by primary school pupils then we expect them to be successful in their studies while travelling such long distances.
“I urge all stakeholders of this district to take an active part to ensure that this problem does not persist. Let us build as many schools as possible in order to reduce these distances,” said Mrs Moyo.
Online Reporter