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Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Health Reporter
EIGHTEEN people who were injured in a road traffic accident, which occurred in Kambuzuma yesterday and taken to Harare Central Hospital received treatment despite few nurses and doctors manning the casualty ward.

Further investigations such as X-rays were also conducted on some of the patients. There were also nurses assisting pregnant women in the maternity ward.

Speaking after visiting some of the hospital’s critical wards yesterday, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said the few workers who also included medical professionals from the uniformed forces and student nurses were trying their best to attend to critical cases despite absence of the rest of the staff.

“I notice that they are trying their best under the circumstances.

“In the casualty it so happened that there was a road traffic accident, there were 18 people who were admitted in the casualty area. There were two nurses and one casualty officer present, they are doing their best,” said Dr Moyo.

“We hope that this situation will not continue for a long time. We pray that everything comes back to normal,” said Dr Moyo.

He said Government was grateful to the assistance being given by the uniformed forces and the few health workers who have committed to continue offering their services despite the circumstances.

He said Government was also making arrangements with the city health department to assist as many patients as they can from local authority facilities.

Meanwhile, the Health Services Board said it will continue working on its homework from the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) despite notification by the Health Apex that it was suspending all scheduled meetings.

Speaking at the same occasion, HSB chairperson Dr Paulinus Sikosana said: “There were agreements from the CBA that we as the HSB had a homework to do. We will continue with that and once negotiations resume, we will provide feedback for continuation of negotiations.”

Health workers withdrew their labour since Monday demanding a safe return of their colleague, Dr Peter Magombeyi who allegedly went missing on Saturday night.