Bulawayo mayor David Coltart has exposed the dire state of Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital, where there is a critical shortage of psychotic disorder medicines, as the city’s water challenges takes a toll on the institution.
Coltart toured the city’s health facilities on Monday to get an appreciation of the challenges they are facing after the local authority announced a 120-hour water-shedding regime.
He visited Ingutsheni, Mater Dei, CURE Children’s and Mpilo Central hospitals.
“We are deeply concerned as a council what impact the shortage of water might have on health institutions, particularly in the face of cholera outbreaks elsewhere in Zimbabwe,’” Coltart said.
He said Ingutsheni was the worst affected by the city’s water crisis.
“But what shocked me was that the toilets are partially blocked and worst of all, there has been no water delivered to the ward for over 24 hours and so the toilets and bathing facilities are not functioning,’’ he said, adding that inmates were overcrowded.
“We were taken to the admission ward of the hospital, called Khumalo Ward. This building was designed to accommodate 95 patients. This morning, it had 159 patients.”
The hospital is also battling a critical shortage of basic medicines needed for psychotic disorders, he revealed.
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“Compounding things further is that the hospital has no antipsychotic drugs at present, which in the words of the medical staff, is their ‘first line of defence’,” he said.
“They have, in fact, not been supplied with adequate quantities of antipsychotic drugs for over a year. The annual budget for this medication for the hospital is US$300 000.
“Ingutsheni is the national referral hospital for people suffering from mental illnesses, so it is our main mental illness hospital countrywide, but as of today, it does not have any antipsychotic medication.”
Coltart said council had worked out an arrangement to prioritise Ingutsheni for water supply, including sinking a borehole.
“The area where the hospital is located has good underground water supplies. I appeal to all to assist us to raise the necessary resources to sink and equip a borehole urgently. I also call on government to urgently arrange the supply of antipsychotic medication to this hospital,’’ he said
Ingutsheni chief medical officer Nemache Mawere said the hospital’s borehole had broken down.
“There is a borehole that is there, but it needs a new pump. There is also another project involving water tanks, but it was left incomplete due to financial constraints,” Mawere said.
“We are looking for donors that can assist us because we have other bigger issues such as food that we need to look into. BCC [Bulawayo City Council] must supply us with water to fill up those tanks, we cannot operate without water.”
Ingutsheni is the country’s largest referral mental health institution.
