CANCER and kidney patients in the Matabeleland region are stranded as critical machines needed for their treatment at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo are not working.
An investigation by Southern Eye exposed the deplorable state of public healthcare, with patients who cannot afford private hospitals left to die at the hospital.
A nurse at Mpilo Hospital said cancer patients at times slept on the floor as there was a shortage of beds.
“Some cancer patients that come here are from rural areas and will come only to find that the cancer machine is not working and have to spend many nights here, instead of one or two days and get billed for their stay,” the nurse, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
“Patients with kidney failure are often left unattended. On several occasions, a family will struggle to get the expensive but much-needed dialysis kits, wait for the next day to be attended to, and unfortunately die during the night.
“There are also no films for X-Rays and patients are shown the results on the machine, that is if they are not bed-ridden.”
Mpilo chief medical officer Narcissus Dzvanga could not be reached for comment as he was not picking calls.
Last month, the government said it had signed a three-year contract with an American company to repair and maintain cancer machines in the country to alleviate the plight of patients.
This came after a parliamentary portfolio committee heard during a tour of Mpilo that cancer machines at the hospital stopped functioning in 2021.
Zimbabwe cancer patients have been facing treatment challenges because of a critical shortage of radiotherapy and chemotherapy equipment.
Radiotherapy machines are used to treat at least 50% of cancer cases.
It can be either corrective or relaxing, depending on the stage and prognosis of the disease.
Health experts indicate that some types of cancer, like cervical cancer, are preventable and easy to treat if diagnosed early.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest number of cases of kidney problems in Africa.
People with renal failure require dialysis as part of their treatment.
Dialysis is a treatment that aids one’s body to remove extra fluid and waste products from the blood when the kidneys are failing to do so.
Dialysis treatment costs between US$80 and US$220 per session at private institutions.
However, some cancer and kidney patients have been forced to seek treatment outside the country because of limited medical resources and a lack of specialised treatment options back home.
