BY VANESSA GONYE
BEITBRIDGE District Hospital has received a 24-bed boost after an international organisation, Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) initiated a project to improve the health facility in a bid to contain the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MSF Beitbridge project co-ordinator Rinako Uneshi yesterday told NewsDay that the initiative was temporary until the third wave subsided.
“MSF collaborated with Beitbridge Hospital during this current third wave to set up the facility, build capacity of the hospital staff and supplement resources. The current initiative is temporary, but capacity-building guarantees the sustainability of this initiative,” Uneshi said.
She said the Beitbridge project will complement other countrywide initiatives such as support for human resources at Wilkins Infectious Disease Hospital in Harare, donation of drugs and screening of chronic patients by the organisation.
During the second wave of COVID-19 in January, MSF implemented a similar project at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.
“The MSF Beitbridge facility collaborates with Social Service and Health and Child Care ministries in screening and testing deportees and returning residents passing through the border at the Rainbow quarantine centre. MSF also provides medical assistance to migrants in transit in need of medical attention,” she said.
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