Doctors' Letter Exposes Deteriorating Conditions At Parirenyatwa Hospital

Doctors based at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, which is Zimbabwe’s largest referral hospital, have requested a meeting with authorities at the hospital over the deteriorating conditions.

In a letter addressed to the hospital’s chief executive officer Ernest Manyawu, the doctors said the hospital had no basic medicines, even for primary care. Part of the letter reads:

As healthcare practitioners, we spent innumerable years in school training to serve our people.

However, the critical lack of consumables in our hospital is rendering us ineffective as we can no longer deliver the services required at the tertiary hospital.

… We often run out of and lack basic sundries which should be available even at primary institutions.

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To mention a few, there have been shortages or lack of yellow cannulas, 5ml and 10ml syringes, sterile gloves, betadine, cotton wool strapping, catheters, and urine bags.

Our U&E machine (urea and electrolytes) is always down, the most common being no reagents, sometimes no water or it’s a mechanical issue.

In an interview with NewsDay on Wednesday night, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals spokesperson Linos Dhire confirmed that authorities had received the letter. He said:

I can confirm that we have received the letter and authorities are meeting the doctors tomorrow to discuss the issues.