23 July 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's hospital network is growing in size and in quality, despite the persistence of a range of difficulties, shortcomings and inefficiencies, Health Minister Ivo Garrido declared on Wednesday.
Opening the fifth session of his Ministry's Hospital Council, Garrido said the growth and modernizing of the network was clear from new district hospitals built in Milange and Morrumbala, in the central province of Zambezia, and in the rehabilitation and expansion of the Cabo Delgado and Tete provincial hospitals.
Building work was also under way in the Montepuez rural hospital in Cabo Delgado and at the Mavalane and Jose Macamo general hospitals in Maputo, which would be completed by 2009.
Garrido said that "poles of excellence" had begun to appear in Mozambican hospitals, including neurosurgery and vertebral surgery in Nampula Central Hospital, and intensive care and cardiac surgery in Maputo Central Hospital.
A further success story was neo-natal treatment in Inhambane provincial hospital, where staff have been able to keep alive infants weighing as little as 800 grams at birth.
Garrido said that the establishment of a "model ward" in the Maputo Central Hospital, would be followed by all other central, provincial and general hospitals. These model wards would be "sites of excellence in clinical care", acting as a source of inspiration for all the other wards in the hospital.
Despite these advances, Garrido warned that hospital management and the analysis of information remained poor, and not a single Mozambican hospital has computerized its services yet.
The hospitals also faced a serious shortage of specialist doctors in areas ranging from neurology to dermatology to orthopaedics.
Garrido also urged all health workers to make greater efforts to "humanize" the way in which patients are treated. "We have to fight against the attitude of treating patients coldly when they turn to us seeking health services", he said.
Hospitals were not just places where scientific and technical knowledge was learnt, he insisted "but also where attitudes and behaviour are formed, and where the spirit of selflessness and sacrifice takes root".
The three day meeting will discuss in particular the implementation of clinical norms and protocols which must be complied with by all clinical staff.
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