adminPamela Shumba
A SERIOUS cash crisis is looming at Ingutsheni Central Hospital in Bulawayo with only $200,000 available to run the institution for the whole year.Presenting the status of the hospital to Bulawayo’s political leadership during a workshop in Bulawayo on Friday, the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Naboth Chaibva, said the hospital, which entirely depends on government funding, was also facing severe shortages of anti-psychotic drugs, a situation that was unsafe for workers.
He said the hospital received an allocation of $1,2 million dollars from the government against debts amounting to $1 million that have to be cleared.
“The hospital owes suppliers of services and goods a total of $1 million. Our recurrent expenditure budget allocation for 2014 is $1, 2 million. This means that for the year 2014 we will effectively have $200, 000 to meet recurrent expenditures,” said Dr Chaibva.
“The hospital does not charge patients for its services. As a result the hospital depends entirely on central government budget allocation for its recurrent expenditures and capital projects.”
Dr Chaibva said for the hospital to continue running, it had to pay its debts to boost confidence in suppliers who were now reluctant to supply the hospital on credit. “The institution continues to experience severe shortages of anti-psychotic drugs at Natpharm.
“The absence of injectables makes it very difficult to quickly sedate patients and also the hospital’s work environment becomes very unsafe for workers, because mental parents are unpredictable,” said Dr Chaibva.
“Sourcing the drugs from private companies is not only expensive but proving very difficult. Failure to pay suppliers of goods and services might cause pellagra, a nutritional disorder caused by dietary deficiency to resurface among patients as we experienced in 2008.”
Dr Chaibva also bemoaned lack of professional workers to run the different departments at the hospital. “There is lack of properly trained and equipped workforce to handle important aspects of service delivery especially in the areas which include purchasing and supply, general management of human resources and transport management.
“Due to the meagre salaries and poor working conditions including lack of accommodation and low allowances for working in a mental health institution, workers end up concentrating on vending in the workplace, thereby affecting service delivery.”
Dr Chaibva said although the hospital had a lot of arable land and underground water that could be taken advantage of, it did not have adequate labour to do the farming activities.
The institution requires a constant supply of Fluphenazine Deconate (FD) injection, Benzhexol tablets and Chrorpromazine (CPZ) drugs.
On average the hospital has a daily in-patient population of 600. Of the daily in-patient population, about 450 are semi-permanent in-patients.
The hospital also administers Emakhandeni Day Care and Bellevue Halfway Home.
Online Reporter