Online Reporter
George Maponga
Masvingo Bureau
THE inaugural group of 25 medical students at the Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) in Masvingo has started clinical studies at Masvingo Provincial University Teaching Hospital in a historic development that is set to transform health delivery while dovetailing with the Second Republic’s mantra of ‘leaving no one and no place behind’.
This development follows the completion of the initial phase of the ongoing US$40 million upgrading of Masvingo Provincial Hospital into a university teaching institution and hub for medical tourism.
The provincial hospital was renamed Masvingo Provincial University Teaching Hospital, and the ongoing upgrade works will culminate in the hospital’s transformation into a 400-bed state-of-the-art health facility.
President Mnangagwa and his administration started upgrading the hospital as part of Vision 2030 of an upper-middle-income society, and the 25 medical students from GZU’s Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences who have started their clinical studies made history by being pioneers from the state-owned university.
Masvingo Provincial University Teaching Hospital medical superintendent Dr Noel Zulu revealed that students from Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences had started their clinical studies at his institution.
The studies will span three years until 2028 when they are expected to complete the 6-year programme.
”We are excited that 25 medical students from Great Zimbabwe University’s Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences have started their clinical studies at Masvingo Provincial (University Teaching) after completion of the first phase of the upgrading project that saw key infrastructure being rehabilitated, among other areas that were attended to after we received massive financial and material support from the Government,” he said.
”It is our hope that the Government will continue to allocate more resources that are required to finance the execution of outstanding projects under the subsequent phases as we continue to develop and expand Masvingo Provincial (University Teaching) Hospital into one of the best medical facilities in the country that also offers medical students a suitable place to finish their studies.”
Dr Zulu noted that his institution has already been transformed by the works that have been undertaken so far, a development he said was a boon for health delivery in Masvingo province.
GZU’s medicine degree spans six years and in the first three years students will be reading for their medical science degree and while in the remaining three years they will be doing their medical or surgery studies.
The medical students were allocated accommodation at the Masvingo Provincial University Teaching Hospital School of Nurse Training.
A total of 90 rooms will be required to make sure the accommodation needs of the medical students are fully catered for.
According to Professor Mufunda, there was still a lot of work that needed to be undertaken to make sure specialists were incentivised to come and teach at the university teaching facility.
According to Dr Zulu the university teaching hospital has its work cut out as it seeks to attract specialists such as urologists, pulmonologists, neurologists and others to work at the new university teaching hospital.
This will also help patients from across Masvingo province who will no longer have to travel to Harare or Bulawayo for specialist medical services.
New structures have to be built at the university teaching hospital to cope with the requirements of medical students undergoing their clinical studies beyond the fourth year, and among these facilities are a new lecture theatre, laboratory, computer, and learning centres.
A new outpatient wing for specialists in neurosurgery, urology, and other areas would also need to be built at the university teaching hospital.
Under the first phase, the administration block, male and female wards, as well as the out-patients department were facelifted, while a fully equipped high dependence unit with 15 beds and an intensive care unit with six beds are nearing completion.
Peter Tanyanyiwa