The family of a deceased coronavirus patient are claiming the government asked them to buy hospital equipment if their son was to be taken care of by Wilkins hospital.
Zororo Makamba, a patient who recently died of Coronavirus in Zimbabwe was asked to buy his own medical equipment by the government and afterwards donate them when he recovers. The claims were made by the brother of the deceased Tawanda Makamba who is also the family spokesperson.
“The Minister (Minister of Health Dr Obadiah Moyo) at some point also suggested that we could take him to a trauma centre in Borrowdale. When it was now time for us to go to Borrowdale trauma they refused us to go there. Instead they got the owner of Borrowdale Trauma Centre to call me and he told me that he could come and set up an ICU at Wilkins for Zororo complete with a ventilator and monitors, but he said that we had to pay US$120 000 for the equipment. He added that once Zororo finishes using the equipment and recovers we had to donate the equipment to Wilkins Hospital. So basically the hospital wanted us to buy the equipment for them. We don’t have US$120 000 and it is not our responsibility to buy equipment for the government.” Tawanda said.
Zimbabwe is facing an acute health crisis emanating from a weak economy manifested by corruption. It has so far reported only two cases of coronavirus. One of the patients died yesterday after failing to get medical care.