Gweru City Council has converted a cocktail bar in Ivene suburb into a clinic, in a bid to improve the health delivery system in the area.
By Stephen Chadenga
Council finance director Edgar Mwedzi said the health facility would be known as Ivene Clinic.
“Council plans to relocate Ivene Clinic to Ivene Cocktail bar and the move should be effected next year,” Mwedzi said. “We have since budgeted $60 000 for the relocation (Ivene Clinic), construction of additional working place at Mkoba 1 Polyclinic as well as the construction of a kitchen and laundry at the Isolation Hospital.”
Mwedzi also said council had budgeted $24 000 for the construction of auto-way pits at Mkoba 1, Mtapa, Mkoba and Senga Polyclinics to be used for the disposal of placenta and other medical waste.
Last year’s council health report revealed that Mtapa Clinic and Isolation Hospital were operating without incinerators and dumped their waste, including used syringes, bandages and linen in open spaces, posing a health hazard to residents.
In 2014, the health department recommended that council should include the issue of incinerators in the 2015 budget, but to date, the recommendations have not been implemented, owing to financial constraints faced by the local authority.
