By Moses Muchemwa
Bulawayo (ZimEye)-Over fifty mental patients at Zimbabwe’s Ingutsheni hospital in Bulawayo have died of hunger as the institution has run out of food and depleted drugs stocks.
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A senior official at the hospital, Naboth Chaibva said the deaths were caused by an acute shortage of food. He noted that as a result of the unbalanced diet, the hospital continued to record a number of deaths because of malnutrition.

Deaths related to hunger are also recorded daily in prisons.

Under normal circumstances Ingutsheni hospital patients get three meals a day and snacks but all that is a thing of the past. Chaibva added that the number of inmates have been slashed to 450 from 600, citing serious shortage of food. The 400 inmates at the institution are not getting a high protein diet although their medication requires a lot of food.

Zimbabwe is reeling under one of the worst economic crisis worldwide, with an inflation figure hitting 5 quintillion, according to independent statisticians. The economic meltdown is blamed on President Robert Mugabe’s 28-year rule.

To worsen the shortage of food, the hospital is operating with a skeleton staff since doctors, nurses and other medical staff are leaving the ravaged country to neighbouring states for greener pastures. Chaibva said experienced staff was resigning due to pathetic salaries.

The deaths at the mental health institution come against a backdrop of rising cholera deaths, which have reached 1 000. Close to 20 000 cases have been recorded countrywide.

Zimbabwe’s economy, healthcare and education systems have collapsed, with critics pointing Mugabe’s maladministration and rampant corruption as forces behind the deteriorating living standards.
(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)
(moses Muchemwa is a journalist and partner with the ZimEye. He can be contacted at mmuchemwa@zimEye.com)

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