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Robin Muchetu, Sunday News Reporter
BEITBRIDGE District Hospital has for the past 10 years been operating without a qualified mortuary attendant after Government froze recruitment of non-critical staff in 2008 and 2011 respectively amid reports that security guards are doubling up as mortuary attendants.
The development is a cause for concern as the guards are not trained and are sometimes overwhelmed. The Provincial Medical Director for Matabeleland South Province, Dr Rudo Chikodzore, confirmed the development.
“We need two mortuary attendants; the two posts that were available were frozen. The first one was around 2008 and the second one in 2011,” she said.
Dr Chikodzore said nurses and security personnel have been taking up the duties of the mortuary attendants.
“Nurses and security guards have to leave their work stations in order to carry out mortuary duties at the hospital,” she added.
She said they had applied for treasury but they have not been granted approval to recruit a mortuary attendant.
The hospital has called on the revision of the job description of the post of the security guard as the post cannot be filled at the moment because of the freezing of posts. Professor Auxilia Chideme-Munodawafa the vice-chairperson of the Health Services Board (HSB) said there was a serious need to hire the mortuary attendant.
“There is a need to look into transferring the post of a security guard into a permanent post of being a mortuary attendant.
Yes, there may be frozen posts but these can be opened up to pave way for such an essential service that is required. Treasury has also promised to look at posts that were frozen and possibly review them,” said Prof Chideme-Munodawafa.
The HSB is on record saying institutions may need more medical personnel but it was dependent on the capacity to pay them from Treasury. Other challenges that the hospital is facing include the shortage of accommodation for staffers. Water is also a challenge for the hospital and other small clinics that are in the district.
The institution has also not been upgraded from a district hospital for the past years which in turn has an effect on staff deployment. Beitbridge District Hospital was originally designed to contain a population of 90 000 but population growth has seen the institution having to cover a population of about 150 000.
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