adminThe re-opening of Ekusileni Medical Centre in Bulawayo is long overdue and what is disturbing is that the structure built at a cost of about $4 million is decaying by each passing day. The state-of-the-art health institution, the brainchild of the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, was built in 2000 and has remained a white elephant since then. The 200-bed hospital is supposed to provide specialist medical services not only to Bulawayo but the country and even the Southern African region.
The hospital only operated for seven months before its closure in 2004 after failing to raise adequate working capital to buy medical and diagnostic equipment. A number of re-opening dates have been given since then but nothing has materialised. The hospital whose construction was funded by the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) has all that is required in terms of buildings which just need to be spruced up given the long period they have been idle.
The hospital’s board of trustees met in Bulawayo on Thursday reportedly to finalise the reopening of the institution and we want to believe this time around it will be finally re-opened. The people have lost hope of ever benefiting from this public investment because it has taken too long to re-open the hospital.
In a statement after the Thursday meeting, the Zimbabwe Health Care Trust (ZHCT) which is responsible for running the hospital, said preparations to re-open the institution were at an advanced stage. “We are closer to re-opening the hospital but we have to go through certain processes before re-opening. We have not come up with the date but we can assure the public that we are fine-tuning everything,” said ZHCT.
The hospital, as already stated, is just a walk in as everything is in place. What is needed is the required equipment and working capital. ZHCT which is made up of eight founding trustees who include health professionals, businesspeople, community leaders and the Nkomo family, has said that it has engaged some investors that are keen to come on board.
The hospital, when fully operational, will run 23 departments and has the potential to increase its bed capacity to 265 beds.
The late Vice-President Nkomo should be turning in his grave because of the time it has taken to re-open the hospital which is supposed to address the non-availability of specialist medical services in the country which has seen many Zimbabweans seeking such services in neighbouring countries such as South Africa while many others have been condemned to death because they cannot afford to travel outside the country to seek such services.
We want at this juncture to appeal to the private sector to assist with the required resources to enable the trust to re-open this important hospital. The private sector is set to benefit immensely from the institutions which will provide specialist services to the people, including workers from the different companies.
The Medical Aid Societies could also be another source of resources as their members require the services of this hospital.
Some of the societies are already spending large sums of money to send their members abroad to seek specialist medical services. NSSA has for nearly 13 years now not received a return for its investment but what is crucial is that this investment must benefit the people.
We therefore expect NSSA to come up with reasonable rentals so that the services provided by the hospital remain affordable to the majority of the people who invested in the construction of the hospital.
It serves no purpose for the user fees of this hospital to be out of reach of the majority of the people yet it is the people’s pension fund that funded the construction of the hospital. We want to implore the trust to work round the clock to see to it that this time around the hospital re-opens.
Online Reporter