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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Manicaland Bureau
Government intends to rehabilitate Chipinge and Chimanimani hospitals to improve primary healthcare provision in Manicaland.
Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo, who toured the two facilities after the province was hit by Cyclone Idai last week, said it was imperative for all health facilities to be able to cope in the event of a disaster.
“We want to make sure we revamp the health care centres here, all the clinics must be spruced up,” he said. “I toured Chipinge Hospital, and I saw that it needs a lot of revamping.
“We will send a team of our infrastructure guys who will make an assessment of this whole area in terms of rehabilitation.
Dr Moyo said the rehabilitation of health facilities was part of the new dispensation’s vision to provide health care to all citizens.
“The new dispensation wants to see a primary health care system that is well supported from the village facilities, to the districts and up to provincial level, with everybody accessing health services without any problems,” he said.
Dr Moyo said Chimanimani Rural Hospital was ill-prepared to cater for emergency situations when the cyclone hit the district because it had limited capacity.
The hospital attended to more than 150 cases, but had to refer the majority of them to Chipinge and Mutare as it had little capacity to attend to all cases.
“I know you did the best you could under the circumstances, said Dr Moyo. I want to applaud the good work that you all did with limited equipment and personnel. It is good that I have seen this facility and its need for rehabilitation.
“We want to improve it so that we can have better buildings.
The next time I come here, you should be having a working x-ray machine, modern beds, proper shelves in the pharmacy and eventually a new pharmacy.”
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter