Working as a frontline worker in the Obstetrics and gynae at a tertiary hospital has been a living hell, waking up daily dreading the day you are on call... will the horror be better than the previous night is always the question.... the end of your shift is filled with sorrow and depression... you are exhausted, the cries of mothers in pain, mothers dying, the faces of all those dead babies you could have saved only if the system was functional. Your arrival at work is marked by rumours and gossips... a long wait, no adequate PPE, you wait while the only matron and nurse in the whole maternity runs around to at least get you something....
You get into the ward, pregnant women in labour flocking from all directions telling you local clinics are closed because of nurses strike and they had no option but to come, since private hospitals are charging US$500.00 and above for normal delivery...
Only a team of 4 exhausted and overwhelmed doctors and one nurse (a matron) running a group of 40+ labouring women... No adequate beds for all some end up delivering in the corridor waiting for their chance to be seen and admitted into the labor ward... During that shift you make up a list of 20 women with pregnancy emergencies who need Caesarian sections... you get to the theatre there are no theatre nurses (nurses are on strike)... after managing to get one, who only agrees to doing one case because she is needed in another operation, you have to select that one biggest emergency and sideline the rest... you get into the theatre the anaesthetist is told there is no anaesthetic, no gases, no propofol, no ketamine... they improvise and you just manage to do that one.. leaving 19 women with emergencies who came that day stranded and helpless.
...they look at you in pain, in tears 'saka chiremba ndichaita sei' and all you do is just look at them helpless.... look at some of them ending up having uterine ruptures bleeding to death and 80% delivering dead babes, no icu department and you end up nursing a critical patient in a normal ward with no nurse, or whatsoever to monitor them and the result is just death.
When you get home all you can do is go in a corner and cry.. what am I really doing... the pain is too much, the cries, the faces all in your mind... the dysfunctional system has led to hospitals being places to certify dead bodies rather than save people... strain on a hungry, at risk, medical doctor, whose whole salary does not afford a simple covid 19 test, but they risk themselves and family not able to take care of themselves.
This is how Zimbabwean health institutions are... if you know any medical doctor working in these institutions just call them and check on them, give them a talk, give them a hug, coz most of us are on the edge of breaking. It is just unbearable, the knowledge, the skill to save life, you have but no tools, no support, and no money. It is just pathetic to say the least....
Anonymous