Home Uncategorized Mpilo hospital pleads for physicists from govt

Mpilo hospital pleads for physicists from govt

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By Staff Reporter


Bulawayo’s Mpilo Central Hospital  has pleaded with the Ministry of Health and Child Care to provide physicists at the health care institution.


Mpilo is one of the only two medical facilities in the country that provides cancer treatment.


Since the health care center has no physicists cancer patients are being turned away.


Cancer treatment requires radiation therapy that uses beams of intense energy to kill cancer cells. While X-rays are often used, protons or other types of energy also can be utilized.


According to Mpilo Chief Executive Officer, Solwayo Ngwenya the machines broke down last August and there are no engineers in Zimbabwe who can fix them except to fly engineers from South Africa.


A number of patients including those from South-Western Zimbabwe, who are in Mpilo’s catchment area, are being referred to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare which is 450km away.


Ngwenya pleaded with the health ministry to second physicists to the institution so that cancer treatment can resume.


“We’re waiting for a physicist to be seconded from Harare, our physicists resigned and left for greener pastures in the United Kingdom. Without a physicist, we’re not allowed to run the machines by regulatory authorities.”
Ngwenya also added that In the absence of radiation treatment, patients are being treated through chemotherapy, which might not be ideal for every patient.

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