Suburban
CARTER House and Pagent House should be used as an extension of Edith Opperman Maternity Clinic as the health facility is now overcrowded, Harare mayor, Councillor Jacob Mafume, has said.
Speaking during a tour of Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases Hospital, Edith Opperman Maternity Clinic in Mbare and Mabvuku Polyclinic yesterday, Cllr Mafume emphasised the need to enlarge the clinics to meet world class standards and to equip them with modern equipment.
Statistics from Edith Opperman Maternity show that there are 30 deliveries on average a day and around 500 births per month.
He said the city cannot continue crowding expecting mothers in small maternity clinics while councils have buildings being used by corrupt individuals.
“Over 500 mothers are assisted at the clinic every month. The tragedy is that the numbers have grown, but physically the facility remains the same.
“What is tragic is that there are two houses that surround the clinic that belong to council which are Pagent House and Carter House. We are not getting any rentals from those places yet we have a cramped clinic.
“Our estate managers and department are doing a disservice to this community, and the health department must immediately make an application to use Carter House as an extension of the maternity clinic.”
He said people come to me every day wanting to lease the two buildings for selfish reasons, while the city’s critical operations are lagging behind.
“We need to have a sustainable funding model for our city. We offer services using ratepayers’ money, but other people from other parts of the country are not paying for these services here,” he said.
“We are going to be introducing a citywide health insurance scheme to make sure that we fund and facilitate the expansion of health services that we can provide as a city. We will buy the equipment and everything that is needed once we introduce the City Health Insurance Fund.”
He said the scheme will work just like any other medical aid scheme.
“Our challenge as a city is that we have 500 000 ratepayers whose money we are using to build and renovate these clinics, but the money is not enough,” he said. – H-Metro
