Esigodini hospital crisis

Plumtree Correspondent
ESIGODINI District Hospital is struggling to provide safe maternal services as it does not have adequate equipment.
Speaking to journalists who were attending a UNFPA workshop on Thursday, a nurse at the hospital said they could not avert contamination cases as they did not have adequate linen.
“We are supposed to administer deliveries on linen servers, which should be replaced for each patient to avoid contamination. However, we are failing to do this because we do not have adequate linen.

“As a result we administer deliveries directly on the bed. This is unhygienic to the patients because the bed can be contaminated in the process and there is a danger of diseases spreading to other patients,” said the nurse.

The District Nursing Officer for Esigodini, Mrs Anela Ndlovu, said the institution’s labour ward could not cater for the number of patients referred to the hospital.

“Our labour ward is in a terrible state. We handle an average of 50 deliveries per month but we only have two beds. We do not have all the drugs which have to be administered to mothers and new born babies soon after birth. Some of the machinery which we have in the ward is not working making it difficult to administer effective maternal services,” said Mrs Ndlovu.

She said the hospital’s maternity waiting home should be expanded as it did not have the capacity to service the whole district.
“The hospital is a referral point for 20 wards in the district. Our maternity waiting home has a capacity of 10 patients but we are sometimes forced to exceed the limit to over 20 patients.

“At the moment we have 15 expecting mothers admitted to the waiting home. This is compromising the standard of health care rendered to patients as the living conditions are not favourable,” she said.

Mrs Ndlovu said maternity waiting homes were crucial in reducing cases of deaths caused by pregnancy complications.
She said the hospital needed refurbishments to fulfil its purpose as a district hospital.

“The hospital is supposed to service the whole district but constraints in resources are making this difficult. The hospital needs refurbishment as it is in a poor state. We have 14 clinics in the district and they all offer maternal services but we are not able to conduct operations within the district. Our theatre is not functioning and in complicated cases we refer patients to Bulawayo,” she said.

The United Nations Population Fund has partnered the Government under the Revitalisation of Maternity Homes and Related Services Project in a bid to improve access to maternal health services.

The organisation has availed 63 ambulances worth $2,5 million to be distributed to all the country’s districts, while about 105 maternity homes will undergo refurbishment, a move meant to reduce deaths associated with child birth.

This followed the availing of a $13 million health fund by the European Union for the purpose.
The fund will also see the training of over 800 health personnel working in maternity waiting homes.
It will also see the procurement of food commodities for pregnant women at maternity waiting homes.

In Zimbabwe, 10 women die every day due to child bearing related complications while a quarter of the deaths are people below 24 years of age.

The high mortality rate is attributed to transport problems, obstetric and neonatal care services, economic problems, shortage of drugs and inadequate training of personnel at the maternity homes, to mention just but a few.

Maternity waiting homes have been identified as a critical component for Zimbabwe’s efforts to reduce maternal mortality as they bring pregnant women closer to health facilities. The project was launched in February this year.