Drug abuse admissions overwhelm Pari’s Annex hospital

Talent Gore

PARIRENYATWA Annex Hospital, the psychiatric division of the top medical facility, is seeing a surge in drugs and substance abusers who require admission compared to other mental health patients.

The facility reduced admissions to 10 adults, at any given time due to ongoing renovations, but more than half of the bed occupants are drugs and substance abusers.

Men, who use drugs, constitute the majority of drug users at 58.47 percent, while women are at 40.59 percent, according to a report by the Final Situation Assessment of drug use in five provinces to inform HIV and TB programming for people who use drugs.

In terms of people injecting themselves drugs as a percentage of their sub-group, women make up 53.25 percent, while men constitute 28.23 percent.

Parirenyatwa’s consultant psychiatrist and head of department, Dr Fungi Mazhandu, revealed that the surging admissions in drugs and substance cases were overwhelming them and disrupting other mental health services.

“The current statistics show that the majority of patients, mostly males that we have been treating have been those with alcohol and substance use disorders since the year 2020,” Dr Mazhandu said.

“I am talking of those severe ones which we had to admit.

“Obviously, this means if we have a certain maximum bed count, if more of them are for alcohol and drugs, it’s not allowing us to serve other conditions.”