Source: The Herald – Breaking news.
Health and Child Care Deputy Minister Dr Sleiman Kwindini (centre) engages with one of the Beitbridge horror crash survivors, Miss Haily Jack, at Beitbridge District Hospital yesterday. — Picture: Thupeyo Muleya 
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
BEITBRIDGE District Hospital is set for a major upgrade to meet modern service delivery needs and respond to growing demand in line with the transformation of the town into a city.
Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Sleiman Kwidini toured the hospital yesterday and commended the town’s growth in terms of population and infrastructure, which demands modern health services.
The 140-bed hospital is a referral centre for the 250 000 local population from more than 17 primary health care clinics. It is also a referral of at least 15 000 people who pass through the town in transit daily and several others from neighbouring districts, including Gwanda and Mwenezi.
Despite the town’s growth, the health facility is still operating with a skeletal staff establishment set in the 1990s. This has resulted in human and material resource gaps amid increased patient burden.
“We appreciate the workload and operational challenges at this hospital, hence as the Government, we are going to urgently upgrade and expand the infrastructure and manpower to this hospital,” said Deputy Minister Kwidini.
“So far, in terms of medicines it is pleasing to note that the local pharmacy has between 55 and 60 percent of the basic medication for any medical facility.
“We have also facilitated that more medication and consumables are delivered to this key health institution as a matter of urgency.”
He said the expansion of the hospital would see more material and human resources being deployed to Beitbridge soon on a phased basis.
Government is already working with other partners and has completed building a bigger pharmacy at the hospital, which will soon be opened for business.
“As the Government, we have noted during our routine working visit that the hospital is strained in terms of resources due to the increased demand for services and its location in a transit town located between major highways leading to Harare and Bulawayo,” said Deputy Minister Kwidini.
“So, we want this hospital to be bigger than it is so that it may carry the burden of people transiting through this town and the local residents.
“We want to boost its capacity to be able to contain any form of disaster as is the case with what they have been doing during major road accidents like the one that occurred last Thursday when we lost 25 lives and more than 40 others were injured.”
The Deputy Minister reiterated the need to ensure the hospital was ready to handle any pressure including emergencies.
“On equipment, it’s important that we put more diagnostic machines including the X-ray and laboratories, which will be delivered later this month with the support of the Global Fund,” he said.
In the long run, the Government intends to expand all its health facilities around port towns so that they may be able to handle their local and transit populations.
Beitbridge District medical officer Dr Lenos Samhere recently said they were handling an average of 350 baby deliveries monthly, which is more than what the provincial and other district hospitals are handling.
“We are in the range of major referral centres like the United Bulawayo Hospitals,” said Dr Samhere.
With regards to last Thursday’s accident, Dr Samhere said most patients had been treated and discharged.
“We are left with two people in the female ward and one will be discharged later today while the other one will be transferred for specialised treatment,” said Dr Samhere.
“Following the road traffic accident, we admitted 23 patients in the female ward where one died, 14 were transferred to other hospitals for specialised treatment and six were discharged and we are remaining with two,” he said.
“In the male ward, we admitted 21 patients, six were transferred for specialised treatment, two died and 13 were discharged. Five other patients died at the Out Patients’ Department.”
Town Mayor Peter Mafuta said there was an urgent need for the Ministry of Health and Child Care to avail more ambulances and resources at the hospital.
The post Beitbridge Hospital set for major upgrade appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.