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The Herald, August 25, 1981
THE Ministry of Health will use a substantial part of its budget allocation to establish eight large nurses’ training schools in each of the eight electoral provinces of Zimbabwe, said the minister, Dr Herbert Ushewokunze in an interview here.
The minister said these would be in addition to the existing Government and church nurses training schools because of the big shortage of nurses.
The ministry was also increasing its medical services to areas neglected during the colonial era like Binga, with opening of several rural health centres and massive deployment of village health workers.
The minister was speaking after a duty tour of health services and hospitals in Lupane and Plumtree.
Dr Ushewokunze said he had seen appalling conditions in health services in these areas.
“There is a crying need for accessible health care facilities,” he said.
He said that except for a few church hospitals and clinics, past governments had done nothing to bring health services to the rural areas and had just increased the service concentration in towns and cities.
He said people were dying of diseases, mostly water-borne. It was necessary to uphold the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade and improve sanitation in rural areas.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
- Zimbabwe has trained thousands of nurses since independence.
- The unfortunate thing is that over the years, the country has also lost several qualified and experienced health personnel to countries that offer greener pastures and better opportunities.
- The decentralisation of health services to rural areas takes pressure off urban hospitals and this has the overall effect of improving health services in both urban centres and rural areas.
- The Government’s integrated rural development programme aims at taking health services to the people by building clinics and referral rural hospitals.
Online Reporter