Suburban
Mt Pleasant Clinic, run by the City of Harare, has been closed after all the workers deployed at the health facility reportedly resigned, the National Assembly heard this week.
Suburban Reporter
Parliament heard on Tuesday this week that the clinic was closed after all the workers left the employ of the City of Harare when Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who is also the Minister of Health, was delivering his Ministerial statement to the legislature on Government’s Covid-19 vaccination plan.
After delivering the statement, Vice President Chiwenga was assisted by his Deputy Dr John Mangwiro and experts from the Ministry of Health and Child Care to respond to follow-up questions from Members of Parliament.
That is when it emerged that Mt Pleasant Constituency had no public health facility operating at the moment as the constituency does not have a Government hospital while Mt Pleasant Clinic run by the City of Harare had stopped operations after staff resigned.
“The last one is that Honourable Minister, while we appreciate the distribution channel, there is no Government hospital in Mt Pleasant Constituency while the only council clinic which we had is currently closed as all workers there have resigned.
“How do you propose to deal with a Constituency which has no functional health facility?” inquired a Member of the National Assembly from Dr Mangwiro.
But Dr Mangwiro assured Parliament that even people living in areas without public health facilities will be covered. He also told the legislature that Government had taken over all council health facilities under the programme to manage Covid-19.
“I am sure this one is being handled. We have many places without clinics and everyone is covered. What people must know is that most of these council facilities are now under Government. We have taken over and we will take care of every Zimbabwean whether there is a clinic or not, everyone will be covered. Remember we have fixed places where people will get their vaccine and we have mobile units that will come to your places to have your vaccine given to you. There is no need to worry too much,” responded Dr Mangwiro.
Since last year, City of Harare has been hit by an exodus of health personnel, including senior nurses who are opting for greener pastures in the private sector and non-governmental organisations sector. All is not well at most City of Harare-run health facilities as the exodus continues with nurses and other healthcare workers citing ill treatment and poor salaries and working conditions.
Zimbabwe Urban and Rural Council Nurses Workers Union president Mr Simbarashe Tafirenyika recently told healthtimes.co.zw that most of the resigning nurses are joining local NGOs while some are leaving for foreign countries.
“It is true council nurses are resigning in their numbers and they are being taken by a local NGO called Zim-TECH where they are being given US$800 which is way above the salary being given to nurses by council.
“The NGO is absorbing the nurses and they have got experience because they did advanced courses in managing clinics and hospitals.
“Those who have resigned are now above 50 and they are working in the clinics but under a different employer,” Mr Tafirenyika was quoted saying.
He said the nurses have not been receiving their pay slips for more than five months and they have also gone for the past two months without pay.
Sometimes they are paid $13,000 per month, RTGS$12,000 or less. Mr Tafirenyika also said there were now some remuneration disparities among the remaining nurses because some were now being paid in foreign currency at six polyclinics in Mabvuku, Hatfield, Mbare, Kuwadzana, Highfield and Glen View, where donors injected funding. Council has a total of 52 clinics and two hospitals.
The City of Harare re-opened Mt Pleasant Clinic after seven months of renovations in March 2018.
The renovations involved repairing the clinic’s roof while some sections of the clinic, which did not have electricity were electrified.
The ceiling was also attended to and was repainted while the interior and exterior of the clinic was repainted. The family health services and the patients’ waiting area were also tiled.
Various stakeholders contributed towards donating new furniture.
At the time the clinic was serving 29 448 residents of Mt Pleasant. Besides primary health care, the clinic also offered maternity services.
Among the well-wishers who donated towards the renovations were then Ward 17 Development Committee member, Mr Greg Pozzo who helped with the tiling, repainting and also donated a wheelchair for use at the clinic.
Celebration Church of Borrowdale donated furniture and paint for the renovations and their deacon Faithful Zisengwe said pledged the church would continue to assist the clinic.
