BY VENERANDA LANGA
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa last year released US$600 000 which went to waste after obsolete equipment was procured from India further paralysing referral centres as senior doctors and specialists remain idle because of lack of equipment in theatres.
The issue was exposed yesterday by the Senior Hospital Doctors’ Association (SHDA) representatives, Shingai Nyaguse (president), Raphael Makota (vice-president), Aaron Musara (secretary-general), Bothwell Anesu Mbuwayesango and Nomaqhawe Moyo who are all specialist doctors.
The doctors appeared before the Ruth Labode-led Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health to speak on a petition they sent to Parliament on December 4, 2019.
The doctors lobbied Parliament to push for the censure of Health minister Obadiah Moyo (pictured), saying he has destroyed the country’s healthcare systems and, therefore, must be relieved of his duties.
The doctors said the condemned consignment included theatre equipment, incubators, ventilators and beds that can only sustain weights of thin people.
“The consignment of equipment from India which was funded by the President came, but the equipment was never used because it was condemned by the engineers on arrival,” Musara said.
“The beds had a maximum weight of only 65kg and a lot of non-pregnant women are 65kg and in our population ladies weight can be up to 75kg and 120kg and so these beds were unsafe and were condemned and were never used,” he said.
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Nyaguse added that anaesthetic machines were also condemned because the engineers were unable to use them. “Some of the incubators for neo-natal care were never used as they had broken parts. The only equipment usable were monitors to take blood pressure and pulse rates,” Nyaguse said, adding that only 10% of the equipment was usable.
Doctors said they were not consulted when the equipment was purchased from Narula Exports of New Delhi, which is not known as a manufacturer of medical equipment.
During the meeting, it emerged that Health deputy minister John Mangwiro phoned different departments in the ministry, telling them that he was going to India to purchase equipment.
“Doctors then got WhatsApp messages of the pictures of the equipment. When the endoscopy equipment (a 2006 model) came, it was incomplete and doctors at Sally Mugabe Hospital (formerly Harare Central Hospital) refused to use it and I am told it was later given to the army,” Mbuwayesango said.
Labode said there is now need for investigations into who was responsible for procuring the equipment.
The doctors blasted the Health Services Board (HSB) for failing to manage things properly.
Mbuwayesango said some equipment went missing because of a 30-minute to one hour period when hospitals are not manned “because all nurses will be waiting for Zupco buses due to dangerous experiments introduced by HSB, like flexi hours where workers report for duty two or three times per week and are brought to work in buses”.
“There is no proper handover and takeover as those who were on duty will be waiting for the bus, while those coming for duty will be disembarking from the bus,” he said.
The senior doctors also told Parliament that intensive care units at the country’s referral hospitals were in dire straits.
Moyo (senior doctor) said for example, United Bulawayo Hospitals’ ICU has capacity for eight beds, but it is running with one borrowed ventilator and if it is taken away by the owners the situation would be disastrous.
Mbuwayesango said: “If you are ill in Zimbabwe and need healthcare, you are simply going to die, particularly if you are not on medical aid. For example, if you are in Murambinda and you need to be transferred to Sally Mugabe Central Hospital, you are asked to supply fuel to the ambulances. It is a disaster. People are dying quietly because central hospitals are incapacitated.”
Mbuwayesango also warned MPs that when they visit Sally Mugabe Central Hospital they should not drink its water, tea, or even use lavatories there because most of them are unusable due to lack of repairs and water.
In their plea to Parliament, the doctors asked MPs to undertake an urgent revival of the health delivery system, to tour hospitals and appreciate the extent of the deterioration and disband the HSB to make way for the Health Services Commission in line with the Constitution.
“Parliament must censure the Minister of Health so that he can stop his actions that are destroying the healthcare system of the country and causing many lives to be lost, failing which it should be caused that he be relieved of his duties before he destroys the nation’s investments in healthcare that have been done over many years,” they said.
But Moyo and Mangwiro who later appeared before the committee quashed the doctors’ allegations that the equipment was obsolete.
“(President) Mnangagwa sourced medicines and equipment from the United Arab Emirates valued at US$5 million and US$1 million from India and US$40 million was also sourced for purchases of essential medicines,” Moyo said.
Mangwiro told the committee that procurement of the equipment from India was done under the care of a consultant, Faith Muchemwa, adding that he was in India when the medicines were purchased, adding that the equipment was in use at the hospitals.
Mangwiro said all the equipment, including the theatre tables were new and in use, adding that the ventilators were also new except one at Mpilo Hospital which failed tests.
