Somewhere in Rushinga District in the Mashonaland Central Province is a clinic, beautiful in construction but short of the most basic items to provide service to the people. The authorities, surely, cannot continue to let down the people of Chomutukutu. Brick by Brick went there on 25 April and we were thoroughly shocked!
It is not for nothing that they say “things done by halves are never done right”. Nowhere is this saying physicalised than at the Chomutukutu Clinic in the Rushinga District of the Mashonaland Central Province.
The Rushinga Rural District Council (RDC) has built a beautiful clinic at Chomutukutu through devolution funds, and both the RDC and the Provincial Administration in Bindura are proud to tell visitors about this clinic. But, surprise, surprise, the authorities have left the clinic without even the minimum resources to serve patients – not even water and electricity.
When a team of Brick by Brick editors visited the clinic on 25 April (in fact the team was sent there by both the Provincial Administration and the RDC to report on the clinic), they were shocked by the story the nurse-in-charge, Linnet Musayidi, had to narrate.
Paraphrasing her will not do justice to the horror of the story. So here, we have her in her own words:
“My name is Linnet Musayidi. I am the nurse in charge. The clinic was opened on 12 December 2022. We attend to outpatients and treat every disease, but right now we are managing malaria. We don’t do maternity because we don’t have the equipment.
“We have three nurses, one FO, one general hand, one EHT, and one nurse aid. We cover Ward 7 and Ward 23, but some patients come from across the border in Mozambique. It is a bit far from here, but they still come because this is now a near-by clinic for them. As a Council clinic, there are charges but right now we don’t charge the Mozambicans anything, we don’t charge even residents. We get our medicines from the district hospital, and they are for free.
“Water is the main challenge here and we are now three weeks without water. We have a borehole but the solar inverter broke down. So the General Hand looks for water and wheel-barrows it to the clinic.
“We don’t also have electricity here, neither national grid nor solar. Not at all. There is no electricity even in town, so the only option is solar.
“The clinic is not registered so far, but we have started operations and will formalise later. There is a clinic 17 km away, that is where we formerly got medical help. It is in another village called Katakura.
“This clinic has been very useful to people here in Chomutukutu. They are happy with this clinic but the medicines are limited because the district gives us limited resources too. We usually write prescriptions for our patients to get their medicines somewhere, but most of them can’t afford it. Now we are registered with Nat Pharm and in the next quarter we can source medications from there.
“The other challenge is accommodation. There is a four-roomed house for four staff members, so each one occupies a room. It’s not enough. Worse still, we are families in those rooms.
“We don’t have maternity wards, so pregnant women still have to travel the long distance to Katakura.
“Our working hours are from 7:30 am to 4 pm. We also do emergency calls to work. They contact us through our phones. At night, we use the torches on our phones to attend to such emergencies.
“Since last year, we have made our complaints to the high authorities and all they say is wait. Since we are not formally opened, we don’t get priority from the authorities. They give it to the hospital. But as stakeholders, we feel the burden because there is not much help coming our direction. I think the way forward is for the Ministry of Health to push for registration and apply for more funding.
“The most important thing is not houses, but structures. If our people get adequate services, it will help and this can be achieved through registering.
“The Ministry of Health has some modalities which they have to fulfill before registration can take place. I’m sure the Council is responsible for making sure that the working conditions are conducive for the workers. But also these projects are done in phases, so this is phase one.”
So this is Chomutukutu Clinic. Surely, the authorities concerned cannot continue to let the people down.
CAPTIONS
Pic 1:
Linnet Musayidi, the nurse in charge of the Chomutukutu Clinic has a sad story to narrate
Pic 2:
The Chomutukutu clinic seen from the outside
