Some pain relief

·       Zim major hospital comes back to life

·      Crippling doctors’ strike finally ends

Mirirai Nsingo

One of Zimbabwe’s major referral hospitals Sally Mugabe is back in business.

Where there was hopelessness there is hope oozing from both patients and hospital administrators alike.

The return to work of doctors, who had been on strike for four months, has the hospital – formerly known as Harare – buzzing again.

Sally Mugabe Hospital public relations officer, Juliet Chikurunhe confirmed that the institution was operating at almost full throttle.

“The doctors are back and departments that were closed are open,” she said.

 A tour of the hospital on Wednesday revealed that patients are being attended to, including some who have been on the operations waiting list for months.

A Highfield form four pupil who has hernia and was supposed to be operated in October 2019 but was forced out of hospital as a result of the impasse between the doctors and the government.

 “I have hernia and it causes me so much pain. Today my headmaster had to bring me to the hospital after I started to feel so much pain.

“I was supposed to be operated on last year but because of the strike I was sent back home. I hope now I can be operated so that I can prepare for my examinations without any pain,” he said.

The four-month long strike had crippled services around the country’s major hospitals, leaving the majority of Zimbabweans desperately in need of health care.

This had resulted in many seeking care at mission hospitals like Karanda and Howard Mission hospital in Mashonaland Central.