No surgery at Parirenyatwa, as health sector continues to deteriorate

By Tererai Karimakwenda
25 February, 2008

Zimbabwe’s biggest state-run hospital has stopped performing surgical operations. The situation at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare was confirmed by the Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti, in a report in the state’s Sunday Mail newspaper. The chairman of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) Dr. Douglas Gwatidzo, said there was a lack of anaesthetics, general equipment breakdowns and a shortage of strong analgesia, used to ease pain after surgery.

All patients requiring surgery are currently being referred to Harare Central Hospital which Gwatidzo said is already suffering the same shortages. He added: “If I remember well there are about 12 theatres at Parirenyatwa so this means many patients will suffer. Imagine two big hospitals having to use the few theatres that are there at Harare Hospital.”

According to the Sunday Mail, Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti blamed the shortages on what he described as the “western-imposed targeted sanctions”. He is quoted as saying: "These are results of western-imposed sanctions that we are always talking about. We can't promise when the situation will return to normal but we want to assure the nation that we are treating this as an urgent matter."

Dr Gwatidzo had a different take on the matter saying: “It all boils down to what we’ve been saying. If the economy is poorly managed it cannot sustain other services that depend on it. The medical sector is a consumer of money made elsewhere.”

It is no secret that all government run institutions have been riddled with corruption and mismanagement. The country’s annual inflation rate is currently the highest in the world, officially over 100,000 percent. Experts and analysts say the deterioration will continue until the broader political crisis is resolved.

In the meantime many more people will die of treatable medical problems.