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George Maponga in Masvingo
THE health delivery system in Masvingo province is on the cusp of stratospheric transformation thanks to the Great Zimbabwe University’s Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences that opened its doors this year.
The medical school was constructed under the Education 5.0 model that is being pursued by the Second Republic under President Mnangagwa and seeks to pivot institutions of higher learning into being hot spots for solutions to challenges affecting local communities.
Masvingo Provincial Hospital failing to close the window of health challenges blighting the province. At one time authorities even mooted construction of a new provincial referral hospital close to the busy Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway to cope with the headache of dearth in modern and adequate health services for ordinary people.
However, the timely move by GZU to construct Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences – aptly named after Masvingo-born national hero, the late Dr Simon Mazorodze – has ushered a new epoch in health delivery in the province with the new facility also resonating with President Mnangagwa’s philosophy of ”leaving no one and no place behind” in the national development agenda.
The opening of the GZU medical school under the Second Republic made it the fourth such institution of higher learning in Zimbabwe after the University of Zimbabwe, Midlands State University and National University of Science and Technology, to mint medical doctors and is firmly in sync with Vision 2030 which seeks to make Zimbabwe an upper middle income society.
Boasting state of the art medical equipment to train modern medical students armed with diverse skills to battle both old and new pestilences today, GZU medical school will be operating alongside the Mashava Teaching Hospital, located about 40km west of Masvingo City, to become focal points of a new medical dispensation in one of Zimbabwe’s most populous province.
GZU’s Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences staff led by Dr William Pote (middle) carrying out experiments in the histology laboratory at the school.
President Mnangagwa commissioned the medical school late last year, paving the way for the enrolment of 22 medical students who are making history by being the first batch of medical students at one of the fastest growing universities in Zimbabwe.
The school has already hired four specialists who will teach at the university and their presence is also a boon for the nearby Masvingo Provincial Hospital as the specialists will also be working at the provincial health referral centre.
GZU medical students will do their clinical studies at the referral hospital thereby beefing up the existing pool of doctors and specialists.
According to Dr William Pote, the chairperson in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the Simon Mozorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences, they have a Memorandum of Understandingwith the provincial hospital for their students to do clinical studies there.
“We have specialists who are teaching here (Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences) but are also working at Masvingo Provincial Hospital and in a few years time we hope to get more specialists who are currently in various places advancing their studies.
“We anticipate that the coming of more specialists will enable some of them to even assist communities around the province by having outreach medical programmes to our district hospitals and this means our people will not travel long distances in search of specialist health services and this is in sync with the ‘leaving no one and no place behind’ philosophy being advanced by President Mnangagwa,” said Dr Pote.
GZU’s Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences teaching staff and technicians busy at work in the biochemistry laboratory at the school.
He disclosed that plans were already in motion to open a specialist services hospital at the university’s Mashava Teaching Hospital that will also be manned by specialists.
The hospital that is already awaiting delivery of specialist equipment from India and other countries is expected to open its doors around the fourth quarter of this year and will offer specialist services and complex medical procedures in different areas including dentistry.
“We have partners that we are working with to open a super specialist services (medical) centre in Mashava that we call the ”new abroad’ which basically means that our people will no longer have to travel to far off to countries like India for some complex medical procedures because we will now be doing them at our teaching hospital in Mashava.
“We are grateful that Government has purchased the equipment that we require and its being shipped as we speak, so we (GZU) anticipate to run the first hospital to offer some of the super specialist medical services in Zimbabwe,” Dr Pote said.
He said the opening of a super specialist medical facility in Mashava by GZU means Zimbabweans in general and the people of Masvingo in particular who need of specialist medical services will pay less to get treatment as they will not only travel short distances but will also pay affordable fees.
GZU’s School of Medical and Health Science’s curriculum was also structured in such a way that 20 percent focused on herbal medicine with students expected to validate the use of herbal medicine which is in line with Education 5.0.
The leeway to formulate new medicine using indigenous herbs by GZU medical students was part of solving societal problems as they would be able, upon graduation, to come up with their own herbal medicines that could be commercially produced and in the process create jobs and employment for Zimbabwe.
Making of medicine from locally available herbs also fitted the bill of import substitution as the country will scale down on the importation of drugs from other countries like India by turning to local suppliers.
GZU Vice Chancellor Professor Rungano Zvobgo said the opening of Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences is testament of the Second Republic’s quest to transform Zimbabwe into an upper middle income economy by 2030.
“This is yet another milestone by the Second Republic in respect of attending to the medical needs of Zimbabweans, the focus really is on making sure that no one and no place is left behind in the Vision 2030 dream of transforming Zimbabwe into an upper middle income society.
President Mnangagwa and his administration is walking the talk on the desire to socio-economically transform Zimbabwe for the benefit of its citizens,” said Professor Zvobgo.
The GZU Vice Chancellor observed that the new school of medical and health sciences would stimulate the growth of Masvingo City with more people from other parts of Zimbabwe travelling here in search of medical services.
He said the new school also spoke to Education 5.0 which demands that universities be hotspots of local community problems, adding that GZU had loudly answered the call for an expanded medical services regime that will eventually close the huge chasm in health services access between Masvingo City and other more developed cities and towns in Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter