Maputo — The Mozambican Ministry of Health on Tuesday began distributing new medical and surgical equipment, and auxiliary diagnostic material, to all the country's health units that possess operating theatres.

Speaking at Maputo Central Hospital, the largest health unit in the country, Health Minister Armindo Tiago said this is an investment of about four million dollars.

The purpose of the new equipment, he stressed, is to achieve the necessary quality of patient care in public hospitals.

Among the new equipment, said the Minister, are 105 operating tables, 105 anaesthesia apparatuses, 205 cardiac monitors, 43 electrical aspirators, 500 caesarian kits, 200, laparotomy kits, 100 amputation kits, and 100 hysterectomy kits.

Acquiring this equipment, said Tiago, was in compliance with the government's five year programme, intended to bring more and better health care to the Mozambican public.

"Our expectation is that this equipment will have an impact on the performance of hospital indicators', he added.

The general director of the central hospital, Mouzinho Saide, took the opportunity to deny a report, published in a sensationalist weekly, that there had been 620 deaths in the hospital, in the space of 40 days, as a result of the recent doctors' strike.

He said that, on average, there are 250 deaths a month in the hospital. "The information that is being broadcast does not correspond to the truth', Saíde told reporters.

He also stressed that the data collected from the morgue does not only refer to deaths at the Central Hospital. Comparing the last two years, Saide said that in some months there were fewer deaths this year than in 2022.

Thus, in August this year, the number of deaths recorded was 392 compared to 425 last year, a decline of 33 deaths. The same trend could be seen in June, when 307 deaths were reported this year compared to 319 last year.

In view of the figures presented, Saíde said that the doctors' strike did not have a major impact on the HCM's mortality rate.