Isitshwala and cabbage for Gwanda patients

 
Patients admitted at Gwanda provincial hospital are surviving on isitshwala and cabbages daily because the hospital is too broke to provide them with a proper balanced diet.

A visit to the hospital exposed the dire food shortages at with relatives being forced to bring meals to hospital to cater for the loved ones.

"There is nothing we can do, my son has been admitted here for a week now but doesn't take cabbage and l am forced to bring him food twice a day," said Thabitha Ncube.

Children admitted at the hospital are also eating the same meals as adults patients.

According to the hospitals' administrator Dr Pugie Chimberengwa the hospital owes over $4 million to service providers.

The poor diet has seen some relatives refusing to have patients admitted at the hospital opting to nurse them from home.

Meanwhile the shortage of nurses at Phakama clinic which caters for the tow's ten wards has seen long winding queues form at the clinic.

Patients are reportedly spending almost a day waiting for medical attention, about five nurses manage the clinic.

The municipality of Gwanda that oversees the clinic cannot employ more nurses because of a freeze on new appointments by the local government ministry.