Pregnant women who give birth at Mutare District Council clinics have to wash the linen used during delivery. The Manica Post reports ...
Pregnant women who give birth at Mutare District Council
clinics have to wash the linen used during delivery.
The Manica Post reports that in the event that a mother is
unwell, they are asked to bring along relatives to wash the linen.
The clinics do not have running water for patients and visitors to wash their hands. “The
water runs out at the clinic and the women go to bath and do their laundry at
Odzi River and it’s a distance from the clinic and the river is infested with
crocodiles,” said a woman who preferred
to remain anonymous.
Mutare Rural District Council CEO, Shepherd Chinaka said:
“Its regrettable but, there is nothing much we can do.”
He said the five peri-urban clinics; Burma Valley,
Chitakatira, Zimunya, Rowa and Odzi, run by the Council do not have support
staff (groundsmen and nurse aids.)
Mr Chinaka also said the staff shortage challenge is
compounded by the fact that patients living in urban areas flock to these
peri-urban clinics because they offer free medical service.
“So, people are travelling to these clinics to get
treatment and further putting strain on the understaffed clinics. The ideal
situation is to have two qualified nurses plus two unqualified staff consisting
a nurse aid and a grounds man at each clinic but due to budgetary constraints
the support staff is not there. As council we do not have the authority to hire
the staff.”
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