Medical doctors should remember their true duty and oath, according to broadcaster and social activist Ezra Tshisa Sibanda. He called on physicians to stop treating sick people as money-making opportunities, warning that such practices endanger lives.
Sibanda voiced these concerns while delivering a eulogy for the late Rose Nyathi, widely known in Bulawayo as uGogo Wodumo. Nyathi succumbed to a brief illness, though the cause remained unclear despite numerous medical tests, according to friends.
“Nowadays, we have doctors who look at patients and only see money. You visit a doctor, and they direct you to get blood tests at a specific lab. When you return with the results, they might refer you to another doctor who orders new tests. You explain that you just had blood tests done, but they insist on more. It’s all about exchanging deals at the expense of people’s lives. Often, it seems like they push you to spend money at labs owned by their friends. Worse yet, results sometimes come back inconclusive, meaning you have to pay even more,” Sibanda said.
He also criticized Mpilo, the main hospital in the area, for what he described as severe negligence. “Imagine a patient sees the doctor only once each morning during rounds. The doctor simply reads the notes he wrote the previous day, adds more notes, then moves on to the next bed. That’s all until the next morning. What kind of care is that?”
Sibanda further condemned the hospital’s restrictive visitation rules, which he believes have fostered corruption. “During the COVID-19 era, limited visitation was understandable. But now, they still allow only two visitors per patient per day. That’s absurd because friends, relatives, neighbors, and church members want to visit and lift the patient’s spirits.”
According to Sibanda, this policy has created a system ripe for corruption. “Security staff often request a dollar to let in additional visitors beyond the limit. Even with Rose, her friend NaFarai had to pay to see her. On the last day, I insisted, ‘This isn’t right, let’s go in and see her.’”
“This is taking an emotional toll on people. At the hospital, I saw a woman from South Africa who had come to see her sick mother. Her siblings had already gone in, so they refused to let her enter. She had just one day off to see her mother before returning to work and had to leave without even a goodbye. Some people die without seeing their loved ones one last time, and that’s deeply wrong. It needs to be addressed soon.”