St Luke’s Hospital in Matabeleland South Province was on Monday night gutted by fire.
The hospital can no longer operate after all equipment, medicines and records were reduced to ashes.
Provincial medical director, Dr Pugie Chimberengwa, confirmed the fire incident:
We have received a report that the Family and Child Health (FCH) department at our designated provincial hospital St Luke’s has been burnt down. Equipment was reduced to ashes including the VIAC unit where cancer screening is conducted.
… We also lost all cervical cancer screening equipment for the district in the fire. The Expanded Programme on immunisation (EPI) department also lost all fridges and their vaccines.
The fire also destroyed rooms that contained nutritional supplements for children with malnutrition as well as all documents and registers.
St Luke’s Hospital is a Roman Catholic mission hospital situated in Kusile District, about 120km from Bulawayo along the Victoria Falls Road.
It is the biggest hospital in Matabeleland North province.