On Friday 02 October 2020, Vice President CGN Chiwenga , who is also the country’s Minister of Health and Child Care visited Ingutsheni Central hospital as part of an appreciation and assessment tour of hospitals in the city. On this visit he managed to tour the hospitals projects which are aimed at self sufficiency in order to improve patient welfare.
The minister paid tribute to Ingutsheni Central Hospital management for the strides taken with these projects and also applauded the health professionals at the hospital for putting patient lives first and not joining in the recent industrial action despite challenging conditions, which he said the government is working to address.
VP Chiwenga said as part of the ongoing restructuring exercise in his ministry, there will be an ambulance division for both road and air services. He said Ingutsheni Central Hospital will be the mechanical centre for the maintenance of Government hospitals’ fleet of vehicles in the southern region. “The maintenance of our vehicles and ambulances in the southern region will be done at Ingutsheni where we have workshops that need to be revamped,” said VP Chiwenga.
Ingutsheni caters for over 600 admitted patients on average at the institution. The hospital is running nutritional gardens, citrus farming, poultry and animal husbandry projects as a means of catering for patients nutritional needs and these have proved critical in the hospitals drive for self sufficiency. VP Chiwenga also said these projects would be soon expanded to a larger scale through the assistance of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement.
Vice President Chiwenga urged other hospitals in the country to take a leaf from Ingutsheni Central Hospital with regards to developing farming and horticultural projects aimed at self sufficiency.
Picture highlights of the VPs visit below:
