Members of the public lodged a number of complaints against the state of health service delivery at Gokwe General Hospital which is based in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe.
Desperate patients are either not timeously treated as expected or not treated at all due to a number of factors.
First and foremost, the hospital only insists on cash payments and bank transfers and does not accept swiping and Ecocash payments. A member of a Community Anti-Corruption and Service Delivery Monitoring Voluntary Action Group based in Gokwe confirmed that he talked to the hospital Administrator/Accountant who indicated that the hospital was ordered to insist on cash payments only by the Ministry of Health’s Head-Quarters based in Harare. Due to cash shortages, most of the patients forgo treatment because of this unfair hospital policy, which is against government policy.
Furthermore, the majority of patients visiting the hospital from the 31st of July 2017 to the 1st of August 2017 did not receive any treatment. It was reported previously that the hospital had 4 doctors but has been left with 2 doctors who takes turns to attend to patients. When one doctor is at work, it means that the other one will be off-duty. This means that one doctor will find it difficult to attend to all patients considering the hospital’s catchment area.
Nurses are also allegedly very negligent in carrying out their duties and responsibilities. For instance, a testimony from a former hospital patient confirms that he was told to buy his own medication, which he did, but the medication was not administered until after two days when he complained.
In addition the hospital does not have blankets. All patients are told to bring their own blankets from home.
It never rains but it pours for Gokwe General Hospital. It has also been reported that some staff members at the same hospital are allegedly fleecing unemployed youth of their hard-earned income under the false pretext that they will organise employment for them. The Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa has long since alerted the Gokwe Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to investigate.
These allegations against Gokwe General Hospital are very serious and the management of the Ministry of Health should at least get concerned, investigate and take appropriate action.
Source: Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa
