Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals has defended nurses who were on duty following reports that Sharon Munyonho died together with her baby during childbirth.
Head of division at Mbuya Nehanda, Taazadza Nhemachena said that the nurses were overwhelmed by the numbers of expecting mothers. Nhemachena also said that the Hospital lacks adequate infrastructure to help ease the nurses’ task. She added:
We are having low risk women and high risk women coming to Parirenyatwa Hospital which overwhelms the system so we end up with system failure and patients end up getting substandard care, we have deaths and mortalities even patients with complications.
The system has been overloaded and the nurse patient ratio for instance in the labour ward should be 1:2 ideally but at the current moment one midwife is looking after four patients and the same case is there in other Wards before they go to labour which compromises monitoring.
Nhemachena’s remarks come as reports suggest that the nurses who were on duty ignored Munyonho arguing that she was faking pain.
There have been reports also suggesting that expecting mothers are being ill-treated at the hospital as workers are aggrieved by the paltry salaries they are getting from the government.
More: New Zimbabwe