Snakes in patient’s wards: Tsholotsho
By Providence Moyo
Patients and staff at Pumula Mission Hospital in Tsholotsho were left shaken after a 2 meter long snake was killed at the hospital’s maternity ward while trying to enter into one of the maternity rooms.
According to the Administrator for Pumula Mission, Albert Moyo the snake was killed at the maternity ward after it was spotted by nurses on duty between 8 and 9 in the evening.
” I can confirm that a snake which was more than 2 metres long was killed at maternity ward last week,” said Moyo.
Moyo expressed concern over the increasing number of snakes in the area and those that are being frequently killed at the hospital.
“There are a lot of snakes in this area, they are very huge and what is more worrying is that they are getting offhand as they are even coming to patients’ wards with the maternity ward not being an exemption.”
He further added that nowadays they do not have lights at the hospital.
“All along we have been using solar powered lights but now they switch off early because our batteries are now weak they need replacement so that we can lit the place well and the rains are also interfering with the sun adding more to our challenge”, said Moyo.
Moyo further expressed his gratitude towards the nurses who were on night duty the day the snake was killed.
However, Moyo said he could not identify what type of a snake it was but the snake was greenish in colour.
When asked about the situation in his area, Chief Alphius Msindazi Dlodlo Siposo said he is yet to engage the community and ask for money from the campfire to buy the four batteries that are needed to light the hospital of which he said he is not sure if the meeting will yield anything.
“The hospital needs four batteries and each one of them costs at least 300 US dollars so I am yet to hold a meeting with the community and ask for money from the campfire to buy new batteries but I am not sure if the meeting will yield anything because under normal circumstances campfire gets most of its money from hunters but this year it was difficult due to COVID 19 and hunting only restarted in October after closing in March which means no hunting was done for seven months,” said Siposo.
He however highlighted that when it comes to batteries being dysfunctional to a point that the hospital has no source of light it is the hospital’s management committee’s negligence.
“It is the hospital’s management’s negligence that creates such problems because those batteries have a life span so they should have been alert towards that and when snakes are entering maternity wards it is going to create disastrous situations because women are fragile, one of them may fall whilst trying to escape and miscarriage in the process “, he said.
