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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Correspondent
MPILO Central Hospital has been hit by a serious shortage of drugs, a development that has been blamed on funding challenges.

The hospital’s chief executive officer Mr Leonard Mabandi yesterday said a hospital was supposed to have 80 percent of drugs in stock, but they have only 50 percent.

Mr Mabandi said this in an interview following the donation of drugs, bandages, syringes, theatre equipment among other hospital essentials by Impilo Revival, a United Kingdom based charity organisation.

He said funding problems were compounding their problems.

“Some of the drugs are not available in the whole country. The financial challenges really put the medicine situation where it is. We’re supposed to be recording 80 percent stock of all required drugs. When we’ve above 80 percent we will be fine but we’ve a minimum of about 50 percent which is not good,” he said.

Mr Mabandi said the economic environment in the country was affecting the hospital’s day to day operations.

“The biggest challenge is that of medicine. A hospital can tick when it has people who can do the diagnosis of diseases and treatment of patients. Medicine is the help we need to assist patients,” he said.

Mr Mabandi hailed the UK-based charity for assisting the hospital. It was encouraging, he said, that Zimbabweans living abroad were concerned about challenges at the country’s health institutions.

He said the donation would complement the hospitals efforts to save lives.

Impilo Revival founder Mrs Judith Olonga, a nurse by profession, said she started the charity organisation after losing five family members.

“I decided to turn the grief and loss into positive thinking of other patients who are still in these hospitals which lacked resources. That’s how I decided to form a charity to source funds for hospitals in Bulawayo and Zimbabwe,” Mrs Olonga.

She said her organisation is widely sponsored by Zimbabweans living in the UK and was run under the theme “Khumbula Ekhaya” (remember your home).

Another major hospital in Bulawayo, Ingutsheni Central Hospital is also facing a critical drugs shortage, a development that has seen some mental patients, who lack sedative medicines, attacking nurses.

@nqotshili