Tshelanyemba Hospital woes

TSHELANYEMBA Hospital in Matobo District might be forced to close as it has gone for three months without electricity, a situation that has made life difficult for patients and staff members who have also been grappling with water shortages for some time.

The situation is said to be dire at the Salvation Army Church-run institution, as a single generator at the hospital is not generating enough to cover demand.

Some villagers said they were told to buy fuel if they wanted their relatives’ bodies to be accommodated at the hospital’s mortuary.

The institution has also been facing serious running fridges and the mortuary. This has also affected our water supplies. There are fears that we might close if the problem persists,” said the source.

She said relatives of deceased people were forced to buy fuel to run the generator if they wanted bodies to be kept in the mortuary.

“It’s too expensive for rural people to do that, especially when the health institution itself is failing to sustain the demand. The problem has also affected the business centre and we are failing to get fresh food from there,” she said.

Problems are not new to the hospital as in 2014, it was forced to close as a result of an acute shortage of drugs, a development that affected thousands of villagers who were solely dependent on the institution for medication

@richardmuponde