Cathy Buckle: The headstones keep their secrets - Zim’s healthcare crisis deepens
Key topics:
Zimbabwe’s public hospitals lack basic supplies, forcing patients to pay for treatment.
Blood prices have doubled since 2019, worsening the national health crisis.
Hospital refurbishments raise doubts amid long-term neglect and missing funds.
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By Cathy Buckle
Dear Family and Friends,
Twenty-five years of writing the stories of everyday life in Zimbabwe, the hardest to bear are the medical ones. Long time readers may recall my story of rushing to help a friend in the government hospital one night. There was no electricity, it was pitch black and with the light from the screen of my mobile phone I eventually found him lying shivering on a concrete floor in the corner of a bare room, his face so swollen I hardly recognized him. They would not treat him until I handed over a pile of money for life saving medication. Another occasion I went to the hospital bedside of a young twenty- year old girl in the final days of her life. The ward was filthy. There was no electricity or water. There was dry blood on the floor and a dead body lying on the springs of the bed next to her. Her life was ebbing away and she begged me for some water to wet her lips and I held her hand as the tears spilled down both of our faces. Or the neighbour who I went to collect after surgery, dry blood all over his face and forehead. Or the elderly lady who couldn’t breathe and the hospital had no oxygen. The stories go on and on, and the headstones keep their secrets.
Last week a message came from a friend: “Please can you help me with two hundred and fifty dollars?” and I knew straight away there was a nightmare story coming. My friend’s Dad had been in a car accident and was in a government hospital where the nightmare had begun the moment they arrived. After paying US$15 for a ‘card’ to have his Dad treated in the hospital, the staff provided a list of everything that the son had to bring before they could, or would, do anything at all to treat his Dad. You name it, it was there on the list from bandages and strapping to syringes, cannulas, tubing, catheters, antibiotics, antiseptic, pain killers and even plain old Paracetamol. And this was before they even got to X Rays, scans, blood tests and other diagnostic imaging tests. Until the son returned with the items on the list his father would not receive any treatment.
This week the national health crisis hit the headlines again. It started with the price of blood. In 2019 a pint of blood cost US$120. Now it costs US$250 and that’s why my friend had asked for help. The National Blood Services of Zimbabwe (NBSZ) says it makes only US$5 profit for every pint of blood it sells. An NBSZ spokesperson said that even though all blood is donated by individuals: “we can only quantify it after all the necessary tests to make it safe for transfusion. …. The value chain involved in getting it from vein to vein is what costs money.” They also said that “blood products are free in all public health institutions because the government meets the full cost by paying NBSZ directly for each unit utilized.”
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Hot on the heels of that story came the news that President Mnangagwa had made unannounced visits to Parirenyatwa and Sally Mugabe hospitals in Harare this week. According to his Deputy Cabinet Secretary, George Charamba: “It was not pretty at all,” adding: “the one question that came insistently through the Presidents lips was: how do we resolve the problem?” That little story then catapulted into another huge story of the sudden, secretive, hospital refurbishment contract awarded to a company in Dubai; no tender, no details no public disclosure. Nothing is ever as it seems in Zimbabwe and so we watch and wait.
Everyone want to know how and why our hospitals, clinics and health care facilities have got to this disgraceful state they are in with ceilings falling down, lights not working, mould on the walls, beds mattresses and chairs falling apart, toilets and bathrooms stained, leaking and dripping. Where has all the upkeep money been going all these years? This is not a crisis that has been a year or two in the making, it has been gong on for two and half decades.
What remains as clear as mud at the end of all this is how refurbishing the buildings is going to help the ordinary patients who have to bring their own paracetamol, syringes, bandages and medical equipment to hospital with them when they go to hospital. Where are all these essential supplies in government hospitals and clinics? Where has the money allocated for them been going all these years and how are refurbished hospitals going to persuade nurses to stay in their jobs when they currently earn in a month less than the price of a single pint of blood.
I end this letter in memory of all the men, women and youngsters whose tragic stories at the hands of our collapsing public health care facilities I have related in my Letters From Zimbabwe over the past 25 years. You are never forgotten.
There is no charge for this Letter From Zimbabwe but if you would like to donate please visit my website.
Until next time, thanks for reading this Letter From Zimbabwe now in its 25th year, and my books about life in Zimbabwe, a country in waiting.
Ndini shamwari yenyu (I am your friend)
Love Cathy 20 June 2025. Copyright © Cathy Buckle https://cathybuckle.co.zw/