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Midlands Correspondent

Zibagwe Rural District Council (RDC) is planning to construct more clinics in the district to improve access to health facilities and improve health delivery system within the district.

The district has only 17 clinics that serve 33 wards, but the council’s intention is for each ward to have at least one clinic.

The situation in the district is so dire that council has erected a makeshift clinic at the council house, which attends to patients from mostly resettlement areas.

In an interview last week, Zibagwe RDC chief executive Mr Farayi Machaya said they were planning to address the problem with their main target being resettlement areas where villagers are travelling long distances to access health services.

“We are faced with a shortage of health facilities in the district where some people have to travel long distances to access health services.

“In our budget consultations, we are selling the idea that health is our number one priority were we need at least one clinic in each ward,” he said.

Mr Machaya said they were targeting to construct at least five clinics in 2019.

“We are motivated by President Mnangagwa’s speech which emphasised the need to improve service delivery to our people especially health care and we are doing exactly that,” he said.

“We have hit the ground running and are targeting to construct not less than five clinics in the coming year.”

Mr Machaya said the district has an abundance of some of the building material which will make the construction easier.

“We have a lot of river and pit sand so we can easily mould our own bricks. Council can chip in with cement and maybe pay for the labour, so there is not much that is needed for the job to be done,” he said.

Mr Machaya said stocks of essential drugs, which had declined lately, had improved.