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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Senior Reporter
More than 75 000 Bulawayo residents will soon benefit from the state-of-the-art Cowdray Park clinic, in line with the Second Republic’s vision to ensure universal access to healthcare services for all Zimbabweans.
The construction of the clinic is part of the Government’s initiative to build 30 clinics and five district hospitals across the country in partnership with British-owned NMS Infrastructure Limited.
Cowdray Park clinic is the second facility to be finished after Stoneridge health centre in Harare South, which was commissioned by President Mnangagwa in May this year.
All facilities will be built using the Stoneridge health centre model and will be completed within the next three years.
Speaking on the progress made at the facility so far, NMS business development manager Mr Brian Madamombe said: “The second facility at Cowdray Park is now at about 85 percent complete and we should officially hand it over in December. The 22-bed facility will have a whole range of services to offer to the population that include maternity, procedures room, male and female wards and paediatric wards and a lab,” he said.
“We are not moving as fast as we would want to but we are definitely moving and we look forward to completing these facilities.
“The biggest challenge we have faced has been Covid-19 pandemic and the global economic challenges which have resulted in the skyrocketing of prices of most commodities. But we are thankful to the President and his vision.”
The majority of the modern facilities are expected to be located in far-to-reach areas and in areas missing out on health facilities and so improving access to health services for most communities.
Mr Madamombe said the facilities would also have housing to accommodate staff.
“Some of the health staff stay far from the health centre particularly in the rural areas, so we will built two and three bedroom houses at each facility where they can be accommodated,” he said.
Bulawayo provincial medical director Dr Mafios Siyamchembu said the facility was the first built-for-purpose facility in the area.
“Healthcare is one of the fundamental rights for any population. It is our hope that this facility will be the first port of call for health needs and will assist those people living in this area in treating known conditions as well as providing the public health preventive services like the immunisation of children among others,” he said.
The community was currently using a satellite clinic run by Bulawayo city council, which was too small to cater for such a population’s health needs.
As a result, residents would opt to visit Luveve and Emakhandeni clinics for health care.
Cowdray Park residents expressed their gratitude to the Second Republic for the clinic which would ensure that every resident can access health care.
Mrs Loveness Guvheya said women would be the major winners as they would now access maternity services closer to their homes.
“We are happy to have this clinic because many women have been facing problems in accessing maternity care. Some would not arrive at the clinic on time especially during the rainy season when some of our roads would be cut off because of flooding. Now that we have this clinic we expect life to be easier because this area has grown significantly,” she said.
She said the satellite clinic was too small to care for everyone hence many pregnant women suffered consequences of reaching a health facility late.
Another resident Mr Sifiso Ngwenya said no one was supposed to die due to failure to access a health facility.
“Now that we have a clinic, we expect things to change for the better. Now what we need is for the road to be fixed so that ambulances can reach the clinic easily,” he said.
Mrs Ntombizodwa Simango said travelling long distances to a clinic would be a thing of the past with the new facility.
She said the health seeking behaviour of most residents would change as some, especially men, would not seek medical care because the clinic was too far.
“Whenever we needed medical care, we had to travel a long distance and you would find long queues and sometimes one could fail to get assistance after spending the whole day there. Some men would dread going to the clinic so we believe this clinic will really assist us. We are thankful that the Government has come through for us. We hope to continue seeing such developments in our area,” Mrs Simango said.
Mr Washington Musonza said such developments would improve their community’s access to health services.
Online Reporter