HARARE mayor Jacob Mafume has ordered the City of Harare health department to use Carter and Pagent House as extensions to Mbare Polyclinic’s Edith Opperman Maternity unit to ease the plight of expecting mothers.
Speaking during a tour of Harare polyclinics on Tuesday, Mafume said the Edith Opperman polyclinic attends to around 500 expecting mothers daily, who face challenges when delivering their babies daily.
“Over 500 mothers are assisted at this polyclinic. At the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), there are only four delivery beds and just one delivery room. So this is a tragedy, and 500 births per month is not a joke,” Mafume said.
“The health department should immediately make an application to use Carter House and Pagent House as an extension of the maternity wing, or the other house as the extension clinic. This will make very good hospitals and then put theatre capacities.”
He said the responsible authorities were failing to refurbish the clinic due to corruption.
“What's happening here is totally opposite. It's actually the highest level of incompetence and thoughtlessness. I have always said that our senior executives must resist the temptation of self-enrichment and corruption. It’s very easy when you are intelligent to steal from people and do a dis-service to them. Why would this clinic with empty buildings that are owned by the city fail to get rentals? We demand answers,” he said.
“I will, therefore, want to declare it when I hold the next council meeting. We need to turn it into a hospital so that the mothers and everyone hold a bigger space to have babies. That needs to be done as a matter of urgency unless someone comes and has better ideas than what I have suggested. Find me a person who will resist the refurbishment and we will get rid of them from our city council because we can't have such blatant selfishness, reckless thoughtlessness being exhibited in this place. We need this for the people.”
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