The Sunday News
FOR specialist health services, villagers in Siabuwa, Binga North in Matabeleland North province are forced to travel 250 kilometres to St Luke’s Hospital in Lupane.
And in extreme circumstances, they are forced to travel further to Bulawayo, about 420 kilometres. All this is happening more than two decades after a community clinic in Siabuwa was recommended to be turned into a hospital to cater for villagers in the 12 wards of Binga North constituency.
“It was recommended a long time ago, way before I became a Chief in 2013, that the community clinic be turned into a hospital but to date, there has been no movement,” said Chief Siabuwa.
Health facilities in Binga North suffer a myriad of challenges such as shortages of nursing staff, drugs and other key inputs. Some clinics are nearly 25 kilometres apart while some wards such as Siyachilaba and Lubu in Binga North do not have clinics at all.
“We also have serious shortages of nursing staff at our Siabuwa community health centre. Getting sick and in need of specialist services is very costly for villagers in my area as that means forking out transport money to seek better health care. This is something that the government must address,” the Chief added. However, Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Richard Moyo said devolution funds from Government will be used to upgrade health facilities in the district.
“We have plans to capacitate health facilities in Binga using Devolution Funds. We have not neglected Binga. We are also using the devolution funds for example to upgrade the poor road network in Binga,” he said. — The Citizen Bulletin
