Katima Mulilo is the beating heart of the Zambezi Region, a crossroad of trade, culture, and life along the mighty Zambezi River. Yet, beneath its vibrancy lies a growing crisis: the crumbling state of Katima Mulilo State Hospital. For too long, residents have endured a facility that is stretched beyond its capacity, understaffed, under-equipped, and struggling to meet the health needs of thousands.
Patients wait for long hours, sometimes days for treatment. Expectant Mothers in labour ward has poor beds, and left alone while critical cases are referred to Rundu or even Windhoek, due to lack of medical doctors which often cause devastating consequences. The lack of specialists, frequent medicine shortages, and malfunctioning equipment paint a grim picture of a hospital meant to be the region’s lifeline. The death toll of patients in sickbeds increase every day, with burial announcements on the local broadcaster gradually.
Nurses and doctors work tirelessly, but burnout is inevitable when demand far outstrips supply. But there is another harsh reality: patients are often left unattended during lunch hours, as health workers lock up and step away at the same time. This practice is not only careless it is dangerous. What if someone dies while waiting in the queue because “lunch hour” is still on? Health care is not a factory job; lives depend on it. Staff should rotate shifts to ensure continuous service, and doctors must also be available during weekends. Illness does not keep office hours, why should the hospital?
Beyond staffing, the very environment of care is collapsing. Toilets are broken, water and waste flowing across the premises. The mortuary is in dysfunctional state, as corpses are found fresh not frozen when taken for burial. Wards are overcrowded, beds are broken, bedsheets are old and torn with no pillows, while patients lie in misery where dignity and sanitation should be guaranteed. A hospital is meant to heal, not expose the sick to further infection.
Family members are not allowed to sleep near and nursing a family patient who is in a critical condition, while the nurses don’t directly take care of the patient as part of service delivery.
This situation raises fundamental questions: how many more lives must be lost because an oxygen machine failed, or because an ambulance was unavailable, or because a patient was neglected during a lunch break?
Why should the people of Zambezi Region, who contribute equally to the nation’s economy, be treated as though their health is less valuable than that of urban Namibians?
The time for lip service is over. The Ministry of Health and Social Services, alongside regional leadership, must prioritize Katima Mulilo State Hospital not with promises, but with concrete investment. A modernized facility with adequate staff housing, reliable medical supplies, proper sanitation, and state-of-the-art equipment is not a luxury; it is a necessity.
Old clinics like Mafuta Clinic located in a peri-urban center of Katima Mulilo with large population should be upgraded into a Health Centre or Hospital, as it serves the local majority residents and the surrounding villages, and should not have one nurse and a congested environment.
A new dawn of constructing new clinics across Zambezi region should be taken into consideration.
Public Private Partnerships (PPP) concept , regional fundraising, and even community-driven initiatives can supplement government resources, but leadership must take the first step.
Health is a right, not a privilege. For the people of Katima Mulilo, that right is being denied daily. A hospital should be a place of healing, not despair. Until this is addressed with urgency, the community will remain trapped in a cycle of preventable suffering.
It is time to heal the hospital so that it may, in turn, heal the people.
END…
By Kimmie Mikatazo
Intern Journalist, 3rd year Student: Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies (Honours)
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