The Sunday Mail
Shamiso Yikoniko
Harare Central Hospital, one of Zimbabwe’s biggest referral health institutions, is in dire straits.
Apart from the financial crisis, the facility is always riddled with water woes and has been forced to abort some of its surgical operations with renal and maternity wards, the paediatrics section, X-rays, theatres, toilets and the laundry section being the hardest hit.
Neglected construction of the mortuary site at the Harare Hospital
Leaking roofs, peeling floors and cracked walls harbour all sorts of bacteria.
Harare Central Hospital finance director, Mr Talkmore Matindife, says: “Our major challenge is to do with finances, with the funding being a bit low. Normally, we receive funding from the Government which is then complemented by collections that we do here.
“Though funding from Government is low, we are grateful that it’s coming. Besides low funding, we also face challenges with the accumulation of debts from those seeking health services.”
Refurbished ward
Mr Matindife says the Government allocation comes on a monthly basis. To date, the hospital has received over US$400 000 against its US$560 000 allocation.
Many patients are evading payment by giving false addresses, sabotaging revenue collection.
“In most cases, we receive patients from the low-end earners and they don’t have much to do in terms of disposable income. And because we can’t turn them away when they come to seek health services, we now have a debt amounting to more than US$20 million which dates back to 2009,” says Mr Matindife. “We have devised ways of recovering our debts by engaging debt collectors but it’s not helping that much.”
Some of the bathrooms have since been refurbished while some haven’t been refurbished due to financial constraints
Some of the bathrooms have since been refurbished while some haven’t been refurbished due to financial constraints
Mr Matindife adds that patients are by-passing the referral system, coming straight to Harare Hospital because services at the institution are offered for free.
“Though it’s difficult running the hospital with a tight budget, we prioritise as to where to put more resources. In most cases we channel more funds to the clinical side for procurement of drugs and medicines and more equipment,” explains Mr Matindife.
The hospital has made headlines for running out of drugs and medicines — claims the finance director dismisses.
“We don’t normally run out completely of drugs but now we buy for use as compared to before where we used to stock drugs for three months due to lack of funding. However, we have challenges in paying the suppliers but we always talk to them.”
A major headache is water supply.
“As we speak there is no water. We spoke to the City of Harare and they said they are looking into it. Their explanation was that they are also facing blackouts where the pumping system is done,” says Mr Matindife.
“This week we have experienced the lowest supply of water and even if the water is there, we have a problem with the pressure of the water that it doesn’t reach even the third floor wards.”
The hospital looks forward to completion of a reservoir.
Harare Hospital CEO Ms Peggy Zvavamwe says they are working hard to revive the institution.
“Though our water situation has slightly improved, our first port of call is to make sure that our water supply is secure with the completion of the water reservoir which has a capacity of 2,5 million litres. Work towards completion are in progress and we are anticipating its commissioning before year end.”
At least US$800 000 is required to renew the dilapidated water pipe system.
“This is an old hospital which is literally falling to pieces and we now prefer vinyl sheeting for the floors, which is one of the methods which effectively prevent bacterial and fungal growth,” Ms Zvavamwe concedes.
“The renovations will be done to all the wards and the changes are meant to create an appealing environment to our patients.”
Renovating a single ward costs about US$30 000.
Several churches and organisations have adopted wards. These include Celebration Health, Methodist Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Impala Motors, Stanbic Bank and others.
The hospital received 600 beds from Government bought with a US$100 million Chinese loan that is also being used to buy sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging machines.
“The Government plan with the Chinese loan has helped to ease our problem on acquiring hospital equipment,” says a grateful Mr Matindife.
Officially opened in 1958 after being built in 1945 with bed occupancy of 630 patients, the hospital has grown to be one of the largest referral centres, but is operating below capacity due to financial constraints.
The hospital now accommodates 1 200 maternal, paediatric, psychiatric and medicinal patients’ beds.
The insufficient funds that the hospital gets is used to cater for the needs of the vulnerable groups exempted from paying hospital fees such as the under-fives and those over 65 years, and those in the psychiatric unit.
“The major challenge there is that drugs required for psychiatric patients are very expensive and we are expected to provide for them,” says Mr Matindife.
Harare Central Hospital has wanted to expand its mortuary since 2005 — but the US$1,5 million needed to do that has not been secured. Current capacity is for 146 corpses, and renovations will increase this to 208.
Ms Zvavamwe says the hospital plans to engage investors to construct apartments on a build-operate-transfer arrangement.
