GOVERNMENT’S air rescue ambulances were in no show when they were needed the most as Beitbridge District Hospital was stretched to the limit following Thursday’s national disaster which claimed 25 people.
Ten seriously injured people among the 56 attended to at the Beitbridge Hospital were transferred by road, enduring 200km and 321km to Gwanda and Bulawayo, respectively.
Sections of that road are extremely difficult to navigate.
Twenty-five people died on Thursday morning — 17 on the spot and another eight on admission at Beitbridge Hospital — when an Urban Connect bus was involved in an accident with a haulage truck about 25km outside Beitbridge along the Harare road.
“This is when we hoped to see the air rescue ambulances at work. If not at such a disaster, when then? Some of the things said are just deceitful and embarrassing,” said a Beitbridge resident.
Beitbridge Rural District Council and Beitbridge Municipality altogether contributed 120 litres of fuel for ambulances to ferry the
injured.
In 2023 soon after the arrival of the choppers, government said operationalisation of air medical rescue services within Zimbabwe’s public health system was expected to be “up and flying” by end of last year, starting with six helicopters across four provinces.
- Beitbridge crash: Air rescue services in no show
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Health and Child Care minister Douglas Mombeshora told journalists during a handover ceremony of Russian donated cholera commodities at the National Pharmaceutical Company (NatPharm) that they had trained some pilots for medical air evacuation.
“This is where they should have come. Where else or it’s for a special type of people,” said the Beitbridge resident.
Zimbabwe’s leadership has been criticised for their seemingly carefree attitude towards the health sector hit by a mass exodus of trained personnel to other countries citing poor remuneration and hostile working conditions in backward environment.
Meanwhile, Beitbridge District Hospital was stretched to its limits on Thursday when it handled 56 victims of the accident.
“Some nurses who were on night duty did not knock off,” a senior nurse said.
“We were overwhelmed since we are short-staffed.”
Calls by locals to have the hospital upgraded to allow more staff have been ignored by government.
The hospital mortuary, designed for 12 people, was stretched and some bodies were laid on the floor.
The hospital, apart from Beitbridge’s 90 000 people, caters for a transit population of 14 000 people using Zimbabwe and the region’s busiest port at Beitbridge.
