admin
Patrick Chitumba Senior Reporter—
MPILO Central Hospital – the third largest referral hospital in the country – is operating with only one ventilator for patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), putting at risk the lives of patients with collapsed respiratory systems. This was revealed by staff in the ICU during a tour of the institution by Health and Child Care Minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa on Thursday last week.
Dr Parirenyatwa was touring the hospital on the sidelines of an investor and donor conference held to raise $15million for the ailing health institution.
In the ICU was a female patient who was said to have had an over dose of anti-retroviral drugs and was gasping for air.
A nurse attending to the woman, Sister Similo Nkiwane, told Dr Parirenyatwa that she needed a ventilator.
“She was admitted in the morning and is HIV positive and needs a ventilator,” Nkiwane told Dr Parirenyatwa who was accompanied by the hospital clinical director Dr Wedu Ndebele and other hospital management members.
“Find her a ventilator,” pleaded Dr Parirenyatwa.
“We don’t have one available. The only ventilator is on another patient and her condition is fast deteriorating,” said Nkiwane.
A ventilator is a machine designed to mechanically move breathable air into and out of the lungs on a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or is breathing with difficulty.
Dr Parirenyatwa who looked disturbed by the development said there was need for government intervention to save people’s lives.
“We are going to improve the conditions here and right now we need to rehabilitate the old buildings we have as we look for funding,” he said.
Staff at the institution said they were now used to seeing people dying in the ICU because of the unavailability of ventilators.
“We always have these cases, worse when we have a road traffic accident. We fail totally to cope because of the unavailability of essential equipment not just the ventilators alone,” said a hospital staff member on condition of anonymity.
“But it’s so painful to watch a patient die when you know that something could have been done to salvage that life.”
The health institution caters for patients from the western end of Bulawayo as well as referral cases from the country’s southern region including Gweru, Beitbridge, Victoria Falls and Masvingo.
The hospital is owed $16 million by patients and has engaged debt collectors in a bid to recover the money.
Mpilo hospital also owes creditors about $2 million.
On Thursday last week, the hospital held its first investor and donor conference that saw individuals and companies donating money, machines and medicines.
Mpilo treated more than four million patients between 1991 and 2013, according to hospital authorities.
Online Reporter