Source: Parly demands probe into hospital deaths – DailyNews Live
Bridget Mananavire 30 March 2017
HARARE – Parliament has demanded an investigation into the death of a
newly-born baby at Masvingo Provincial Hospital (MPH) due to alleged
neglect by medical staff.
The health institution’s staff is accused of reportedly failing to attend
to a woman in labour, resulting in her baby’s death due to a cold.
Parliament’s Public Accounts committee – headed by Mufakose MDC MP Paurina
Mpariwa – is targeting MPH’s midwives over the fatal incident, captured in
the auditor-general’s report tabled in the National Assembly a fortnight
ago.
At the same hospital, two registered general nurses are also accused of
neglecting a critically-ill patient who allegedly died under the care of a
nurse aide.
“Can you explain to the committee why there was gross negligence at MPH
that caused the loss of lives?” Mpariwa asked Health ministry permanent
secretary Gerald Gwinji.
“What disciplinary and other corrective measures have you taken to ensure
proper service delivery at the institution?” she questioned.
Gwinji said: “We don’t think this is the norm and whenever such issues
happen, the relevant persons involved are brought to a disciplinary
hearing and charged accordingly.”
“In addition to that, we have tried to enhance training, particularly
around midwifery for people and for nurses who are on the ground to
realise the urgency of the matter when the mother is about to deliver.
“In that case, disciplinary action was taken, they were charged, they were
demoted and they were made to lose part of their salaries,” he said.
Gwinji said they had also put up a team of seniors who go around mentoring
others in the nursing department.
“These go out on the ground. In as far as Masvingo is concerned, we picked
up these three nurses, but there are also other places where we picked
slightly higher level people, like doctors themselves and so forth.
“So this mentoring programme and ethics-building programme is meant to
restore those ethics we used to have around patient care.
“It is regrettable that life was lost and it can never be replaced, the
system then took relevant action to see how we can correct this,” he said.
COMMENTS