FEAR and ignorance have led healthcare workers at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo to neglect patients that suffer from other ailments, as they now believe that every ill person who walks through the health centre’s gates suffers from the deadly and highly contagious coronavirus (Covid-19).
Health workers from the country’s major hospitals were up in arms with authorities during the course of last week, as they claimed that their lives were under undue risk because of lack of Protective Personal Equipment (PPE).
On Friday, the Health Apex Council insisted that health workers were not on strike after a meeting with Health Services Bipartite Negotiating Platform held in Harare the previous day.
EcoSure, a subsidiary of Econet, owned by business mogul Mr Strive Masiyiwa, has since offered free PPE for all doctors and nurses who attend duties during the fight against the epidemic, while they have also offered free Vaya transport to both nurses and doctors, so they can commute to and from work in safe and sanitised vehicles.
In addition, they have put on the table life and health insurance in the form of a cash benefit of $500 per day, for each day of hospitalisation, and a lump sum benefit of $50 000 in the event of permanent disability and eventual death caused by any accident of any health worker during this period.
In an interview with Sunday News, Mpilo Central Hospital Clinical Director Dr Solwayo Ngwenya said health workers had been turning away patients in fear that they might have Covid-19.
“We have a worry about health workers turning away people from hospitals. I have been saying that there will be ignorance leading to chaos leading to mass deaths and this is already happening.
“We have a situation whereby health workers are now labelling everyone as a Covid-19 patient and this is going to kill people unnecessarily,” he said.
Dr Ngwenya said they had tried to educate health workers at the institution but had not made much headway, as they already had made their minds up.
“This morning (Friday) the CEO (chief executive officer) and I at Mpilo tried to have an educational talk with members of staff and they appear not to be receptive to any educational changes.
“They have made up their mind that every patient in Zimbabwe is a Covid-19 patient which is quite grossly ignorant on its own. So yes, indeed this is a fear that I have always had.
