adminProsper Ndlovu Senior Reporter
THE Ekusileni Medical Centre (EMC) board of trustees met in Bulawayo yesterday to finalise the processes leading to the re-opening of the institution.In a statement after the meeting, the Zimbabwe Health Care Trust (ZHCT), which is responsible for the hospital, said preparations for the opening of the hospital were at an advanced stage.
“We held a meeting today as the trustees with our business partners at the hospital. Ever since the institution was built it has been our aim to make it operational,” said ZHCT.
“We are closer to opening the hospital but we have to go through certain processes before re-opening. We have not come up with the date but I can assure you that we are fine tuning everything. We meet to achieve a purpose.”
The trust could not disclose the amount of money needed to bring the giant institution to its feet but said financial processes were close to finality.
The hospital is the brain child of the late Vice President Dr Joshua Nyongolo Mqabuko Nkomo and is situated at the corner of Old Esigodini-Bulawayo Road and Cecil Avenue in Hillside suburb.
ZHCT is made up of eight founding trustees who include health professionals, business people, community leaders and the Nkomo family.
The trust is on record saying it has engaged some investors who were keen to come on board and bring life to the hospital.
The continued closure of the hospital has become a cause for concern for Bulawayo residents.
Once operational the hospital is expected to improve the provision of the health care in the southern region.
The institution is set to run 23 departments with 157 beds that would be increased to 265.
EMC is also set to absorb scores of jobless nurses and doctors who graduated from Mpilo Central Hospital, the United Bulawayo Hospitals and the National University of Science and Technology (Nust)’s Medical School.
The hospital briefly opened in 2004 but was promptly closed after it was discovered that the equipment worth millions of dollars acquired by the institution was obsolete.
EMC was built in 2000 as a specialist hospital through the inspiration of the late Dr Nkomo after realisation that there was a need to establish more medical facilities in the city.
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