BULAWAYO – A fire destroyed the residence of Mpilo Central Hospital doctors on Wednesday night, heaping fresh woe on a hospital beset by multiple crises.
Doctors and other health workers housed in the 39-room double storey building leapt through windows, leaving behind their prized possessions as the fire quickly spread, destroying everything in its path.
One doctor was injured after jumping to safety, the hospital’s acting clinical director Dr Ngqabutho Dube said.
“I lost everything I owned in the fire. I escaped through the window. But what matters is the gift of life. I’m grateful,” Dr Munashe Nigel Mudumiso tweeted.
Another doctor Misheck Ruwende said: “At least we’re all alive, but few items bought by poor doctors perished. It never rains…”
The Fire Brigade responded but only arrived after more than 30 minutes with faulty equipment. By then, there was nothing to save.
In 2019, another fire destroyed an adjacent smaller residence for doctors. An electrical fault was thought to have caused that blaze.
Professor Solwayo Ngwenya, the acting hospital CEO, said they were “devastated”. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation, Ngwenya said, adding that some health workers reported seeing “sparks of fire from an electrical distribution box.”
“The building housed a mix of doctors and other health workers. We will make an assessment and see how we go from here. It’s a major setback for the hospital because now we have dozens of homeless doctors and other workers,” Prof Ngwenya said.
Ngwenya said the cost of the damage was an estimated US$500,000.
ZimLive reported this week that Mpilo’s radiotherapy machines have been broken for three weeks, putting the lives of cancer patients at risk. The hospital has no foreign currency to bring in engineers from South Africa and is waiting for the health ministry through treasury to release the funds.
Nurses and relatives are also being forced to carry critically ill patients on a staircase because of intermittent power cuts which cause the lifts at the hospital to malfunction.
Mpilo Central Hospital is the biggest referral facility in Zimbabwe after Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare.
