admin
MPILO Central Hospital in Bulawayo has been forced to suspend surgical procedures owing to a critical shortage of oxygen kits.
The institution which is a referral hospital not only for Bulawayo but for Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, Masvingo and Midlands provinces as well, was last May again forced to suspend this critical service due to shortage of drugs and other consumables.
The 1,000 bed hospital built in 1957 to service Matabeleland region and beyond, cannot afford to suspend surgical procedures given its vast catchment area. The latest suspension of surgical operations has been caused by a shortage of oxygen kits which in our view is not acceptable given the fact that such kits are readily available.
We totally agree with concerned relatives that the hospital authorities should prioritise patients’ lives. Mpilo Hospital, as already stated, cannot afford to suspend surgical procedures even for a day as many patients that require this service are referred to it everyday.
What has to be appreciated is that for many of these patients, the surgical operation means life and death.
It is against this background that we want to implore Mpilo authorities to ensure that drugs and other consumables needed for surgical operations are available all the time.
It is not very long ago that we applauded Mpilo authorities for doing a sterling job to mobilise the community to assist in raising the required resources to run the hospital as well as fund other projects to improve service delivery.
The hospital last August held an investors and donors’ conference and the outcome was said to be a resounding success.
The donors’ conference was a confirmation that authorities at Mpilo are thinking outside the box.
The authorities instead of just crying about reduced government funding, decided to fundraise to augment the little coming from the government.
The brilliant initiative could be dented by the hospital’s failure to conduct surgical operations. The authorities should therefore not lose focus that their core business is to provide such critical services which smaller institutions referring patients to them cannot provide.
The government on its part should also ensure that despite the limited resources, drugs and consumables required for surgical operations are made available.
A number of companies are reported to have adopted wards at Mpilo as part of measures to improve service delivery and these companies will feel let down if the same hospital they are assisting fails to provide an essential service.
We want to once again call on Mpilo authorities to ensure that surgical operations resume as soon as possible and that measures are put in place to ensure that such a service is not suspended in future.
derick.khumalo