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CHIMANIMANI — Tucked in rural Chimanimani, the small Mutambara Mission Hospital faces a workload usually associated with the country’s biggest referral hospitals.
Located about 155 km south east of Mutare, the hospital provides medical care to an estimated
35 000 people living in Chimanimani district alone.
In addition to the catchment area the hospital also accepts patients from as far as Mutare and Harare who are escaping the poor health delivery capacity of government hospitals and the high cost of medical care in the private sector.
On average, its outpatients department treats at least 90 patients a day while the Waiting Mother’s Home receives between 40 and 60 expecting mothers per day.
Rudo Sigauke has travelled about 30 km from Nyanyadzi to Mutambara Mission to await delivery of her third child.
Although there is a local clinic a stone’s throw from where she comes from, Sigauke prefers seeking medical care at Mutambara.
“Sometimes when you go to the clinic, they tell you they have no medicines and there is no doctor
. . . most of the time they refer you to Mutare General Hospital,” she said last week.
“But it’s even worse there than at the local clinic; you have to wait for several hours to be attended to.
“To avoid all these problems most of us just avoid the local clinic and come to Mutambara Hospital.
“Here they never send you back home on the grounds that they have no medicines or because your illness is too advanced.”
Another patient Edgar Mugari also travelled another 30 km from Rusitu.
Mugari had been referred to Mutare Hospital from Rusitu Mission Hospital to see a specialist physician for what nurses suspected could be a kidney problem.
“We get very good treatment at Rusitu but the only problem is that there is no doctor and the nurses told me I need to see one for my condition,” said Mugari.
“I didn’t have money to travel all the way to Mutare.
“To get here I paid US$2 and to get to Mutare you have to pay US$7 for transport and then more for consultation and accommodation.
“Then again it’s not certain that you will get treatment.”
Precious Nyamukapa, an expecting mother staying at Mutare’s Dangamvura low-income suburb chose the rural mission hospital despite the fact she would pay at least US$9 more than the fees at government hospital in the city.
“Our hospital brings together Zimbabwean men and women from all walks of life who are in search of quality health care and a Christian environment where they can be looked after whole heartedly,” said Emmanuel Mefor, the Mutambara Hospital medical superintendent.
Mefor was speaking last week at the launch of the Maternity Waiting Homes at the hospital.
Mutambara Hospital is not the only mission hospital now overburdened by the collapse of the country’s public health system.
Other mission hospitals such as Howard, Karanda, Murambinda, Nyadire and St Alberts mission hospitals have also in the past reported a huge influx of patients.
Since the formation of the inclusive government there have been attempts by treasury to reverse years of underfunding and neglect of the health sector.
But much work still needs to be done to woo back health professionals who skipped the country in search of greener pastures.
BY BERTHA SHOKO
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