COMMENT: Bosses at UBH must tell us what is happening with donations

OUR country is facing economic challenges.  Western sanctions are to blame. Droughts and a few natural disasters have had an impact here and there but sanctions are clearly the biggest cause.

As a result of the punitive measures meted on us over the past 22 years, some companies faced artificial barriers to some markets.

They, too, could not secure critical spares from the West. They cannot secure lines of credit.  The Government cannot access support from global financial institutions.

With many tax-paying businesses shutting down or struggling to survive, Government revenues have been constrained to such an extent that its capacity to invest in some public programmes has been greatly curtailed.

Spending on transport infrastructure has been compromised, for example. The same applies to spending on education, health and so on.

Fortunately, some donors are complementing the constrained Government efforts. We appreciate their donations indeed.

Last year, the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) received some donations which we thought would go a long way in alleviating the challenges the facility is facing providing quality health services.

We reported yesterday that the hospital received beds, anaesthetic machines, wheelchairs, desks, operating tables, paediatric incubators and furniture but sadly all this valuable equipment is just being stored at UBH’s recreational hall since they were handed over. The donors include the United Nations

Population Fund (UNFPA) which through the Embassy of Japan bought equipment worth US$500 000 for public hospitals including UBH.

UNFPA said it donated anaesthetic machines, operating tables, delivery tables, intensive care unit beds, infusion pumps, examination lights, anti-shock garments, umbilical clamps, urinary protein test strips,

Doppler foetal heart monitor and midwifery kits to UBH and other hospitals.
“It’s painful to see patients being turned away because of space and unavailability of theatre equipment yet we have equipment lying idle in our hall. Some of the equipment may have expired by now,” said a worker.

Another said:
“Donors do not just donate; they make needs-based assessment. Some women are delivering and sleeping on the floor; the overcrowding is worrying but there is nothing much that can be done because we need to attend to them. It’s quite unsafe to be having pregnant women delivering without proper bedding and equipment as this puts the life of the child and mother in danger.”

We wonder what the powers-that-be at UBH are thinking when workers are having to improvise, mothers being forced to deliver on the floor when loads of equipment and beds are rotting away under storage.

Is the equipment obsolete? Does it not fit into the system at UBH? Are staff there unable to use it? Have the powers-that-be found an opportunity to pilfer? What is going on?

We cannot get answers to these questions for here is a major hospital that is desperate for beds, wheelchairs and so on; receives loads of them as donations but thinks it makes sense to simply pile them away.

The bosses at UBH must tell the nation what is happening with the donations.  They must account for every bit of it, just in case the pilferage that one of our sources suspects is actually taking place. This claim is enough to make police curious. If nothing is being stolen, then the dereliction of duty on the part of the decision-makers at the hospital is indescribable.

Article Source: The Chronicle