Roseline Mutare
The long awaited repair of Masvingo Provincial Hospital incinerator which serves all health centres including labs and private facilities in the ancient city is 98% complete.
In an interview with The Midweek Watch, Masvingo Provincial Hospital Medical Superintendent, Doctor Noel Zulu confirmed that the incinerator is ready, but the hospital is waiting for the ministry specialists and relevant authorities to inspect and commission the facility before it can resume operations.
“The completion of the incinerator is a huge milestone in the hospital’s upgrade and repair project, which aims to improve the quality of healthcare services offered to patients,” said Zulu.
“Once operational, the incinerator will play a critical role in the hospital’s waste management system, ensuring that medical waste is disposed of safely and efficiently,”
“The hospital’s upgrade and repair project has been ongoing for some time, with various components, including the incinerator, being completed in phases,” he added.
Zulu highlighted that the primary purpose of an incinerator is to reduce the volume of waste through combustion, facilitating efficient disposal and, in some cases, recovering heat energy for use.
The completion of the incinerator is expected to have a positive impact on the hospital’s operations, allowing staff to focus on providing improved quality healthcare services to patients instead of taking waste to dumpsite which far away and laborious.
The hospital has been facing challenges in disposing of medical waste for some years as the incinerator was down forcing the institution to rely on dumpsite provided by the City of Masvingo.
The arrangement is a health time bomb as the waste cannot be taken to the dumpsite during the rainy season due to inaccessibility of the place by road and this resulted in piles of medical waste accumulating outside the incinerator at the only referral hospital in the province.
