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Mukudzei Chingwere recently in BULAWAYO
Ingutsheni Central Hospital in Bulawayo, a major and specialised psychiatric hospital, has started receiving proceeds from commercial activities in fulfilment of a new funding model announced by Government on September 7, last year.
Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga announced an envisaged funding model in his maiden speech as Minister of Health and Child Care aimed at having a system that reflects international best practices.
The structure includes integration with national institutions and a sustainable funding model, which has all been operationalised at the specialised psychiatric hospital.
Soon after VP Chiwenga’s visit, where he clearly spelt out the vision to the hospital management, authorities here were quick to start implementation of two projects for horticulture and chicken rearing.
For the chicken project alone in the first three months of January, February and March, they had a turnover of $1,7 million and so far in April alone they have so far surpassed $1,2 million.
The hospital’s acting chief executive officer Dr Nemache Mawere said: “We started with these two projects for chicken and horticulture which do not need much capital, but the model is quite big and we are looking at full implementation.
“The chicken project is going on very well, but we hope to increase our numbers. The challenge is the supply chain of chicks which is erratic at the moment.
“The horticulture project did not go very well. We were affected by the weather and now we hope to get support for starting a greenhouse project,” said Dr Mawere. Dr Mawere said the hospital was tapping expert advice from the Agricultural Ministry and they now need support for inputs to kick start their huge projects.
He said they are in dire need of income generating projects to meet the fiscal requirements of the hospital with a capacity of 750 in-house patients.
“All the services we provide here are for free, and we need regular funding to sustain our operations. We have a capacity of 750 people but we have an average of 650 patients at any given time.”
Since hospitalisation for a psychiatric illness can be compulsory, it is impossible to charge fees or to have any compulsory private psychiatric hospital.
“We also have a problem of infrastructure. Because of their condition patients are always destroying infrastructure and there is a need for constant and timely repairs from our colleagues at public works,” said Dr Mawere.
Despite the delicate nature of their work with patients suffering from various psychiatric conditions, the institution has not had a Covid-19 outbreak.
Online Reporter