‘Govt should improve conditions at Ngomahuru’

REGIS CHINGAWO IN MASVINGO

The Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina) says the country’s second largest psychiatric hospital, Ngomahuru Psychiatric Hospital, is in a deplorable state and nurses are working under poor conditions.

The hospital is located 50km south of Masvingo.

Zina president Enock Dongo said the institution does not have adequate medical consumables and staff morale at the institution was at its lowest ebb.

“Last week the country joined the rest of the world in celebrating World Nurses Day, but it was a sad day for the nursing staff at Ngomahuru. As we speak there is no functional laundry to cater for the washing of the patients’ clothing,” Dongo said.

He said there was inadequate food and drugs for the mental patients making it difficult for the nursing staff to work.

“We are therefore appealing to the government to look into all these issues and come up with a solution,” Dongo said.

Masvingo Centre for Research and Development director Ephraim Mtombeni told Business Times it was high time for all stakeholders to put their heads together and find long lasting solutions to the problems facing the nursing staff and patients at the institution.

“Right now if you go there you will find out that some infrastructure is dilapidated and needs some repair. The road network to the institution is bad and is not passable during the rainy season. That place has long been forgotten and nurses cannot work in the right frame of mind given the circumstances,” Mtombeni said.

Ngomahuru health facility was built by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1920. It was later taken over by white settler government in 1925.  

The hospital was built mainly for lepers and later developed as a psychiatric facility.