Hospital turns down donation

Midlands Correspondent
MEMBERS of the Seventh Day Church in Gweru recently failed to hand over a donation to patients at Gweru Provincial Hospital after officials at the institution blocked the move. The church members had reportedly bought some groceries and clothes which they wanted to donate to patients when they were reportedly turned away.

They alleged they were told that the donation should be handed over to management first.
In an interview yesterday, one of the church elders, Mr Owen Masimba, said the church was surprised by the hospital’s stance.

“We were totally embarrassed as a church when we recently visited Gweru Provincial Hospital with our small donation only to be turned away by members of staff. This was after they indicated to us that all donations to the hospital should be done via the hospital administrator’s office,” he said.

Mr Masimba said the church was now stuck with  the donation following the “embarrassment” they suffered at the hands of the hospital staff.
“We thought the donation was supposed to be handed over to the patients in the presence of members of staff.

The treatment we got made us feel the hospital was not amused by our donation and decided to withhold our donation. We are still deciding on whether to hand over the donation to another vulnerable group of society,” he said.

Gweru Provincial Hospital medical superintendent, Dr Fabian Mashingaidze, said he was not aware of the Seventh Day Adventist Church donation.
He, however, confirmed that all donations to the hospital were supposed to be received by the administration.

“The simple reason why the administration is supposed to receive all donations to the institution is for accountability’s sake. We also need to enter such donation into our records so that we could go back and thank the donors either by calling them or by way of writing,” he said.