Parirenyatwa hospital struggles with single ICU

Zimbabwe's largest referral hospital, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, is currently operating with just a single Intensive Care Unit (ICU) that serves the entire institution, a situation that severely hampers its ability to provide critical care to patients across multiple specialties.

This shortage comes at a critical time when approximately 4,500 children are born annually in Zimbabwe with congenital heart defects requiring open heart surgery. Additionally, the hospital faces a growing waiting list of up to 600 adults suffering from rheumatic heart disease, all in urgent need of life-saving surgical intervention.

Despite handling the country's most complex medical cases, Parirenyatwa lacks a dedicated cardiothoracic ICU, which greatly limits its capacity to perform open heart surgeries regularly. Instead, all critical patients—including those needing cardiac, trauma, or other emergency care—are managed within the same overcrowded ICU facility.

Specialist cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon Dr. Simukayi Machawira expressed concern over the limited infrastructure and shortage of trained personnel. "At the moment at Parirenyatwa we just have one ICU that addresses the whole hospital, not just cardiothoracic," Dr. Machawira said. "Ideally, we should have an independent cardiothoracic ICU with 10 beds, then that way we can operate every day without any impediment. This is what we are working towards — a fully functional unit."

The hospital's challenges are compounded by a critical shortage of specialised staff. Currently, Parirenyatwa relies on just one trained perfusionist, the essential technician responsible for managing the heart-lung machine during open-heart surgeries.

"We still have one perfusionist. I am happy to say we have secured training for two perfusionists in Tanzania, and hopefully we will get a training opportunity for another one in Kenya. Once we have five or six, we will be able to embark on a larger programme and also train our own perfusionists locally," Dr. Machawira explained.

From June 2023 to date, Parirenyatwa has performed approximately 55 open heart surgeries, a number far below what the country's burden of heart disease demands.

The situation at Parirenyatwa is emblematic of the wider public health crisis facing Zimbabwe's hospitals, many of which serve the majority of the population who cannot afford private care. Chronic underfunding, crumbling infrastructure, shortages of essential equipment and medicines, and a persistent brain drain of skilled healthcare workers continue to cripple the health sector.

Critics say that despite repeated promises, President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government has neglected the nation's public health institutions, leaving them ill-equipped to meet urgent and growing medical needs.

With rising patient numbers and limited resources, the need for investment in specialised units and personnel training at Parirenyatwa and other referral hospitals is more urgent than ever to save lives and improve Zimbabwe's healthcare outcomes.