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Ekusileni Medical Centre

THE re-opening of Ekusileni Medical Centre — a private specialist hospital in Bulawayo built in honour of Father Zimbabwe Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo — could soon be a reality after a committee tasked with overseeing its operationalisation flighted a tender to find a private investor by next month.

The hospital, which was built by the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) in 2001, has never been operational since its inception after equipment it acquired for millions of dollars was found to be obsolete.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care last year constituted a committee chaired by Matabeleland North provincial medical director Dr Nyasha Masuka which was tasked to identify a partner and last week, it flighted a tender for interested private players to run the hospital as a specialist medical centre. “We placed an advert on Sunday last week for interested investors to come forward. We’re waiting for responses and once we reach the deadline after 30 days, we’ll start the process of selecting the suitable investor. The selection process should take less than a month.

“Anybody, even local doctors who are interested are free to apply as long they have adequate experience and the capacity to run the hospital in terms of the required funds and resources,” said Dr Masuka.

He said they agreed as a committee that Ekusileni will be a national specialist hospital to avoid duplication of services with existing hospitals in Bulawayo.

“We want Ekusileni to be a centre of excellence. This is what we’re emphasising to our potential investors. We already have general hospitals and we don’t want duplication of services.

“Once the investor has been identified we’ll sign a Memorandum of Understanding to guide us in terms of operations at the hospital,” said Dr Masuka.

He said the committee was already discussing with NSSA to make sure that the hospital is ready for occupation when an investor is identified.

“There’s also some work that needs to be finished off at the hospital. The occupancy of the hospital will depend on how soon this work is completed.

“The work includes finishing off the kitchen, theatre and the incinerator for waste management. The hospital also doesn’t have a mortuary. The occupancy of the hospital will depend on how soon these areas are attended to,” said Dr Masuka.

This is certainly great news for the people of Bulawayo who have endured a decade of inertia and frustrations as the hospital failed to re-open. The envisaged re-opening of the facility will also boost access to quality medical services in the city which has of late witnessed the re-opening of another top class medical centre — the Mpilo Cancer Unit.

Subsequent to its opening in April — officials there also revealed that they had scored a first by rolling out nuclear medicine, the first institution to do so in Zimbabwe, and this will result in advanced diagnosis and treatment of cancer, heart, lung, kidney diseases among others.

According to experts, nuclear medicine has the potential for early detection of diseases. One of the main advantages of nuclear medicine imaging is that in most cases the whole body is analysed allowing advanced treatment options for patients suffering from serious illnesses such as cancer, by way of radiation or chemotherapy.

It is also more detailed and accurate and as such nuclear medicine makes complex medical procedures simpler and safer for patients. With the arrival of quality control equipment needed to roll out nuclear medicine, the whole cancer unit at Mpilo is expected to be operational in due course bringing relief to cancer patients who previously had to go out of the country for treatment.

In a space of a few months, Bulawayo could soon have two world class medical facilities and this can only be good for the city. In the same vein, we hail the giant strides being made by Government in seeking to provide quality health care to Zimbabweans particularly in the field of specialist health services.

The proposed re-opening of Ekusileni will not only lessen the burden on patients suffering from ailments such as cancer and other terminal diseases but could result in Bulawayo benefiting from medical tourism. If properly capacitated and managed, the facility could attract patients from the Sadc region and beyond, boosting foreign earnings. It will also create employment and stem the brain drain in the medical field.

Dr Nkomo’s vision was for the establishment of a world class facility capable of competing with the best hospitals anywhere on the planet and we hope the committee will stay true to his wishes.