Doctors’ boost for Kwekwe Hospital

KWEKWE District Hospital recently got three medical doctors to boost its staff complement.

In an interview on the sidelines of a donation by Simbisa Brands recently, Acting Medical Superintended Dr Mike Matambo said the hospital had been facing a serious shortage of doctors.

“We had been facing shortages of medical doctors, but we recently received three more doctors this last week although they are yet to settle in,” he said.

Dr Matambo said the hospital had been operating with only three doctors against a requirement of 10.

“For us to operate efficiently, we would require three or four more, but we are grateful for the support and we also look forward to improving our service provision,” said Dr Matambo.

He said poor infrastructure and lack of accommodation facilities was driving away the medical practitioners from the institution.

“We are currently facing serious accommodation challenges, a major contributing factor to the shortage of staff at the hospital,” said Dr Matambo.

“The six doctors are currently sharing four houses and some of them require refurbishing.”

Dr Matambo said the staff compliment was now ready to deliver.

“We are in a mining area where machete attacks are the order of the day,” he said.

“We receive at least 10 machete related cases per day, but that has since reduced due to inactivity in gold mines.

“So, I can safely say we are now ready to deal with such emergencies.”

Dr Matambo said the harsh economic conditions did not spare the institution and rallied the corporate world to continue with their support.

“We have challenges in almost every department, but we are very grateful to the business community that always chips in here and there to ensure we continue serving the community,” he said.

Simbisa Brands operations manager for Kwekwe Mr Xolisani Gama said Chicken Inn was ready to assist the hospital with refurbishment of doctors’ houses.

“As a company, we feel we have to play a part in improving service delivery to the people,” he said. “Chicken Inn is not all about the chicken, but we have people at heart. So, we will work on a plan on how we can assist in improving the doctors’ accommodation.”

Chicken Inn donated lunch to 53 patients and purchased drugs worth $150 for a patient suffering from a rare skin disease.