BY Brenna Matendere GWERU residents have received a major healthcare boost after a local legislator used Constituency Development Funds (CDF) to convert a council-owned cocktail bar into a state-of-the-art clinic. Gweru Urban legislator Brian Dube (MDC Alliance) confirmed the development yesterday. “We applied to council and we were given the go-ahead to convert the Ivene Cocktail Bar into a standard modern clinic. This was necessitated by the compelling need to relocate the Ivene Clinic,” he said. “The current clinic was so small that staff and patients shared one single toilet. There was no medical storeroom and the treatment room was used for three purposes. It was the sister- in-charge’s office, treatment room and storeroom. There was also no TB boom and patients were served from the veranda.' The MP, who is also a lawyer and MDC Alliance deputy secretary for legal affairs, added that the old clinic posed a health hazard for residents as it was located at the heart of a residential area, a challenge that has since been resolved by the new project. “The old clinic was located within houses and not safe as disposals of used medical materials risked being accessed by kids,” the legislator said. “However, the location of the new clinic is at the far end of the neighbourhood, making it safer.” He added: “We have stand-alone rooms for TB, treatment, sister-in-charge, dispensary, drug and consultation as well as the clerk’s office.” “We now have a proper modern clinic. The vision is that, since there is still space, we will also develop further to have a maternity ward and day care rest wards.”