A severe shortage of medical doctors has reportedly hit Plumtree District Hospital. Since last year, only one doctor has been serving the referral health centre.
Sources told NewsDay yesterday the hospital used to have four medical doctors.
“Two doctors left sometime last year while one left this year in January, leaving the hospital with only one doctor, who cannot cope with the demand,” said the source who asked to remain anonymous.
Both the hospital administrator Velani Gama and medical officer Langalokusa Sibanda declined to comment over the matter yesterday.
But residents said the staff shortage had compromised service delivery at the hospital.
“We want doctors back at the hospital as a matter of urgency because it is not a secret that as a result of doctors’ shortage, we are losing relatives who would have survived,” said a resident who preferred anonymity.
Another resident, Sindile Napa, said he lost his brother, who was admitted at the hospital for five days after suffering from high blood pressure on August 31. “In the five days he was admitted he was not attended to,” Napa claimed.
“It might have been due to shortage of doctors or negligence by the staff, I do not know. But the truth is I lost my brother, just like that.”
