Nurses at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals have said the medical institution is being rundown and people are normalising the rot.
Raw sewage flows unattended at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, NewZimbabwe reports.
The publication also reports that the place smells due to “the filth, the countless number of dumpsites, strewn-about defunct equipment, fallen trees, damaged sports courts, falling and leaking ceilings in the wards.”
All these have been there for over three years, according to nurses who spoke to NewZimbabwe. One of the nurses is quoted as saying:
This place is now rundown and people have normalised it. Imagine, we talked to these people months ago but they did nothing.
You would expect Parirenyatwa to be the smartest hospital in the country but when you get here all you see is old equipment in the corridors, rusty gutters and unattended dirt.”
Parirenyatwa hosts the country’s biggest nurse training school, housing over 5 000 beds, three major facilities that include the largest maternity hospital, 12 theatres and over a thousand health care providers.
The institution has three nurse training intakes for a three-year diploma, with all students staying within the hospital grounds.
It is the country’s largest referral hospital and, despite a shortage of equipment, personal protective clothing and medicines; the facility is still expected to serve tens of thousands daily from across the country.
In September this year, two patients undergoing treatment were injured after a ceiling fell on them during the examination. Government critics say the incident was just an example of Zimbabwe’s dilapidated health delivery infrastructure.
They blame the rot on negligent political elites who have over the years been going to South Africa, Singapore, Egypt and China for medical attention.