The Department of Health and Social Development is facing a serious challenge of accommodating a large number of patients who visit Musina Hospital.

Hundreds of Zimbabweans without any documents visit Musina hospital for consultation every month.

According to Mr Phuti Seloba, spokesperson for the provincial department, more than 1 000 “undocumented” Zimbabweans consulted at Musina hospital in the past three months. Seloba also adds that 227 undocumented Zimbabweans were admitted in the hospital in the past three months while 842 were just treated and given medication before they left for their homes.

“Our other challenge is that we are sometime forced to bury some of these patients who die and we cannot trace their families. In the past three months, 19 ‘undocumented’ Zimbabweans died at Musina hospital and we buried 11 of those,” says Seloba.

Seloba confirmed that some of the patients, including South Africans, are being discharged early because of overcrowding in the wards. “We take this as a challenge as our job as a department is to treat patients irrespective of where they come from.

“This is a serious challenge to us, as Musina is a very small hospital, but we will continue to operate like that as we do not have a solution for this challenge,” says Seloba.

Seloba says there are plans to upgrade Musina hospital very soon, but he believes this won’t solve the challenge facing them now.