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JOSHUA Mqabuko Nkomo Ekusileni Medical Centre in Bulawayo has introduced antenatal services for expecting mothers using the same fees as Government clinics, and more healthcare services are expected to be rolled out.
The medical centre is the brain child of the late former Vice President Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo who died of cancer at the age of 82 on July 1 in 1999. His dream to see ordinary people access specialist healthcare gave birth to Ekusileni, which officially opened in 2021 after 17 years of false starts.
Although the hospital opened to cater for Covid-19 patients, plans are underway to transform it into a specialist training and research school under the National University of Science and Technology (Nust).
Nust envisages Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Ekusileni Medical Centre eventually becoming the crux of medical tourism and provide essential services for local people at affordable costs. Medical tourism results when foreigners visit a country for medical services.
The Ekusileni upgrade is part of the Government’s efforts to provide world-class training for doctors locally while improving the quality of healthcare delivery.
The project buttresses Nust’s vision of becoming a highly specialised service provider for cardiac, renal and surgical and medical respiratory care.
In an interview on Monday, Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Ekusileni Medical Centre’s acting chief medical officer, Dr Vimbai Moyana-Muguto, said offering antenatal services will be the first steps towards opening the hospital for more services.
“When Ekusileni Hospital started being operational in 2021, it offered only Covid-19 services and it is still an isolation and treatment centre in Bulawayo. However, since Covid-19 cases have been on the decline, we would, at times, have zero admissions,” she said.
“As hospital management, we started brainstorming on how to use the hospital, particularly based on the background that there are plans which have been put in place to make it a quinary hospital in the future.”
Dr Moyana-Muguto said being a quinary hospital they agreed to start offering maternity and paediatric services in addition to the Covid-19 services.
“So, we decided as management to start off with baby steps by offering maternity services since it won’t be diverting from the main plan.
“It is actually the foundation upon which to start building up on the main future plan,” she said.
The hospital will start off by offering clinical services to pregnant women before handing them over to the United Bulawayo Hospital`s maternity hospital for delivery.
“We realised that the steps that we need to fulfil are so many. Since we are transitioning from Covid-19 to maternity, we needed to take it step by step by starting off by offering clinic-like services which include antenatal clinic services,” she said.
“A woman who comes from the authorised catchment areas will be monitored during their pregnancy and when they get to full term they will be handed over to United Bulawayo Hospitals.”
Dr Moyana-Muguto said UBH is supporting them in terms of human resources, and equipment required to set up the clinic. “The reason we are not taking up delivery is because we are taking baby steps and by doing so we will be building up in terms of equipment, human resources and all the expertise that we need so that we can offer a fully-fledged maternity at Ekusileni,” she said.
The hospital was working on getting hospital paediatrician wards running to pave the way for the hospital to start offering baby delivery services.
“We are also working on the hospital theatres so that the women who may need theatre services during delivery are assisted. As we are starting, we are going to fill up the many gaps which are existing,” she said.
“We will push for more services since we have a very good place which is not being used fully. We will build from here until we reach our main target of being a specialist hospital.”
The hospital’s catchment area includes Ilanda, Selbourne Park, Hillside, How Mine, Burnside, Waterford and part of the city centre.
Our Bulawayo Bureau yesterday visited the hospital and observed that the facilities which will be used for the antenatal services are top-notch.
A number of nurses and supporting staff were at the hospital ready to receive patients.
Bulawayo provincial medical director Dr Maphios Siamuchembu said the move will help decongest other hospitals offering similar services.
“We hope to continue expanding services available to the public and decongest the few health centres offering these services. We want to improve the quality, and availability of clinical services so that people don’t spend a lot of time in queues waiting to be served,” he said.
“We are in agreement with the National University of Science and Technology and all other stakeholders involved in the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Ekusileni Medical Centre that there is a need to expand the services beyond the Covid-19 services.”
Dr Siamuchembu said the hospital is earmarked to be a quinary hospital which offers research and novel treatments not available in other institutions in line with Vision 2030.
Online Reporter