By Hopewell Chin'ono
More than ten doctors wrote to me this morning correctly expressing their legitimate anger at what happened to one of their colleagues yesterday in Manicaland.
This is Dr Mthabisi Nembaware.
He was involved in a road traffic accident yesterday, he was coming from a rural hospital in Hauna where he was saving lives, he was going to Mutare.
The car in which he was a passenger had a burst tyre resulting in this tragic accident.
He had severe Traumatic Brain Injury and was stabilised at Mutare Hospital.
But unfortunately the hospital doesn’t have a functional ICU unit or a functional city to city ambulance system.
As such, he was supposed to be transferred to Harare by air ambulance for special medical care.
Despite parading the overpriced so called helicopter ambulance, the State couldn’t airlift him to Harare.
His family put together US$5,000 to airlift him using a private ambulance air service.
But sadly the air ambulance plane couldn’t go because Mutare airport doesn’t have working landing lights.
Unfortunately, Dr Mthabisi Nembaware succumbed to the injuries at around 11 pm last night.
The doctor has become yet another unnecessary statistic of a collapsed healthcare services.
Our country has adequate resources to have a good functional healthcare system, but the public funds are ruthlessly looted to the detriment of the whole nation.
Millions of dollars are spent annually buying thousands of luxury cars for Zimbabwe’s unethical political elite, money that could have been deployed fix the critical public services like healthcare.
May Dr Mthabisi Nembaware Rest in Peace🙏🏿.
☝️
