Chronicle Editor
Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
African Sun Limited through its subsidiary Holiday Inn Bulawayo, yesterday handed over a renovated ward to Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo.
The refurbished Ward 8 is on third floor of Block B and has a capacity of 34 beds.
At one time Ward 8 was a library used by the University of Zimbabwe Medical School.
This is the second ward to be renovated by Holiday Inn as it refurbished B6 male ward in 2014.
According to the Principal Nursing officer Mr Phineas Sithole, in 2000 when the Paediatric Ward was completed at the hospital, equipment and furniture was moved from Ward 8 to the Paediatric Ward.
He said ward 8 which was used as a children’s ward was left empty and there were no resources to re-equip or renovate it for change of use hence it was turned into a library.
Mr Sithole said a donor conference was held in 2014 and parties interested in Public, Private Partnerships (PPPs) with Mpilo were identified.
He said it was after the conference that Holiday Inn renovated the B6 male ward.
Last year the hotel approached the hospital authorities to find out where it could help and it was agreed that they could renovate Ward 8.
Mr Sithole said renovations started last November and were completed two weeks ago.The renovations involved putting new tiles, upgrading ablution facilities and painting among other works. The hotel also provided new linen that include sheets, pillowcases, towels as well as sanitisers and garments used by health staff.
Speaking during the handover ceremony, the hotel’s general manager Mrs Amanda Mathema said Mpilo Central Hospital was close to the hearts of many employees at the hotel.
“We first establish the needs of a community and then work out how best we can assist. We call this giving for good. We believe communities that we work with understand and appreciate the importance of working together as we help each other,” said Mrs Mathema.
She said over 95 percent of the Holiday Inn staff in Bulawayo were either born at Mpilo or were at one time assisted at the hospital.
Mrs Mathema said the hotel will maintain the wards it refurbished.
“Before the outbreak of Covid-19, we had returned to Mpilo to do what we call home care which involves fixing broken down facilities such as window panes but we could not do that because of Covid-19,” she said.
Mrs Mathema said a team from the hotel will regularly visit the hospital to check on the renovated wards and undertake repairs of broken down facilities.
Accepting the renovated ward, the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Narcisius Dzvanga commended the partnership with the hotel.
“Funding of the health sector is a big challenge worldwide hence we applaud such partnerships which go a long way in assisting us to improve service delivery,” he said.
The handover ceremony was also attended by Holiday Inn deputy general manager Ms Grace Guchu, Mpilo Central Hospital chief operations officer Mr Joel Charangwa and principal human resources officer Mrs Alice Mapanzure as well as other senior staff from the hospital and hotel.
Online Reporter