To the Editor Improve health facilities

ALTHOUGH I agree that the previous Government administration led by RG Mugabe did its best by building clinics and hospitals in most parts of the country I still feel that a lot has to be done to improve these health facilities.

Zimbabwe has about sixty districts and most clinics and hospitals in those hospitals are operating without ambulances and this has forced many patients to die in their homes after failing to be transported to the nearest health centre.

Residents in most districts in Zimbabwe have been appealing to the Government through the Ministry of Health and Child Care to buy ambulances for these clinics and hospitals but it looks like their cries are falling on deaf ears as nothing has been done to improve the way of living for people, especially in the rural areas.

Some of these hospitals are the referral health centres in those districts but you would be shocked to see that they are busy operating without a single ambulance. In some parts of Zimbabwe patients are taken to hospital in ox-drawn scotch carts and many patients have been killed in scotch cart accidents.

Some hospitals have got ambulances although the ambulances cannot cover the whole district.

Most district hospitals and clinics are located in areas where roads are in bad state and some bus companies have withdrawn their buses complaining of potholes which damage their buses.

This has left many patients to die in their homes as a result of ambulance shortages.

We hope that the Ministry of Health will at least buy three or four ambulances per district hospital to save more lives. Eddious Masundire Shumba and Amos Mabaleka, Sontala High School, Kezi District.