BULAWAYO – Patients at Ingutsheni, Zimbabwe’s largest psychiatric hospital, face starvation after food stocks ran dry Tuesday with authorities at a loss on where to get the next meal to feed hundreds of patients.
In a Tuesday correspondence, hospital CEO Dr Namache Mawere sent an SOS call to the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe appealing for “urgent” assistance.
Mawere said food stocks had depleted, with patients faced with imminent hunger.
“Due to current budgetary constraints, the hospital is currently besieged with overwhelming problems such as lack of food provisions, particularly mealie meal and cooking oil of which our stocks are currently fully diminished.
“As from Tuesday, the 13th of December 2022, there would be completely no mealie meal and cooking oil to feed the patients. We are in a crisis.
“We are therefore urgently appealing to your office for urgent assistance,” Mawere said.
The hospital boss could however not be readily reached to confirm the current number of inmates at the health institution.
The country’s central hospital and referral centre for mental health has over 700 beds.
The revelations patients were starving has elicited strong condemnation from among Zimbabweans coming in the wake of government’s controversial disbursement of over US$34 million in unsolicited loans to ministers and members of parliament.
