Mutora Hospital has not yet been completed and access is difficult due to a poor road network. The hospital also faces a critical shortage of nursing staff.
The District Nursing Officer, Salphina Mashavakure, told Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who was touring the area, that her hospital caters for a very young productive population where girls marry as early as16 years old.
“The hospital caters for a densely populated area with a young productive population. Girls in this area marry at 16 or even 15 because the boys will have made money from cotton sales. We service more than 250 000 people, yet many of the clinics in the area are not working,” said Mashavakure.
The hospital has no doctors and many more key positions remain un-filled. She told Tsvangirai that it had become difficult to attract key staff to the institution because of poor remuneration.
The Prime Minister promised to investigate the challenges raised at the meeting and to present a report to cabinet.
“We will sit down with the ministers involved in these projects so that we see where the problems are. This hospital (Mutora) must be up and running,” said Tsvangirai.
Post published in: Health