The government has allayed fuel shortage fears at hospitals in the aftermath of shocking fuel price increases that came into effect yesterday.
This follows a video that went viral on social media about a fuel crisis at Bindura Hospital, prompting the relevant ministry to take action.
Bindura Hospital has for a while, been facing hindrances in their day to day operations due to the non availability of the precious liquid.
However, the Ministry of Health and Child care released a statement yesterday responding to the information that went viral on social media platforms, particularly Mashonaland Central Province Public Health Institutions.
The ministry subscribed to the notion that all hospital in the province have been facing fuel challenges for some time now. This was due to the fact that all local filling stations have been giving only 40 litres per ambulance and nothing for the containers.
With the current load-shading schedule that has been introduced by the power utility company, ZESA, it is very critical for hospitals to have fuel in containers for standby generators. It was also made known from the incident that during the weekend, Bindura Hospital was denied fuel by PUMA Service station because the fuel they had was meant for farmers.
In an effort to appeal for assistance from the farmers through WhatsApp, the video went viral.
This left the Minister of State with no option but to call for an emergency meeting. It is during this meeting that PUMA promised to reserve 6 000 litres per month for Bindura Hospital.
Meanwhile Superfert gave the hospital 500 litres of diesel, with Trojan Mine having asked for the hospital’s requirements and ZERA is also assessing the hospital’s needs with an aim to assist.
“To this end, no patient died as a result of the fuel crisis. All emergency cases were transferred to Harare Central Hospital,” read part of the statement.
