Sunday Mail Reporter
The Harare City Council is mulling setting up district hospitals as part of measures to decongest polyclin­ics.

According to minutes of a recent meeting of the Education, Health, Housing and Community Services and Licensing Committee, the pro­posal follows an upsurge in demand for services at council polyclinics.

Mabvuku and Edith Opperman clinics are among the busiest.
On average, 400 babies are deliv­ered at the clinic in Mabvuku each month while Edith Opperman han­dles over 500 deliveries.
“The director of health services further reported that most council clinics were now overcrowded as a result of increased utilisation due to better services, shortage of nurses, shortage of space, especially consult­ing rooms, and high demand for ARV and TB treatment as well as treatment for other chronic condi­tions.

“ . . . Council authorises the direc­tor of health services to explore the possibility of setting up district hos­pitals in Harare as a means to decon­gest polyclinics and offer more com­prehensive health services to the resi­dents of Harare,” reads part of the minutes.
Council authorities indicated that the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare has already acceded to the proposal.

“The committee noted that the Ministry of Health and Child Wel­fare had given a nod to the idea and that the director of health services would come up with a project pro­posal on the matter,” the minutes state.

The committee also noted that services at polyclinics have contin­ued to improve as a result of the partner­ships that council has forged with several donors.
“The committee noted that most of the capital projects were done with assistance from various part­ners namely Global Fund Round 8, German Agro Action, Zim

Health and TB care partnerships, just to mention a few.
“Only a few were done using coun­cil resources and these included the completion of Kuwadzana Extension and Budiriro clinics, which council hoped to complete this year,” the committee said.