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THE Government has made a commitment to re-open Ekusileni Medical Centre in Bulawayo before the end of the year. The specialist hospital which was built in 2000, is the brainchild of the late Vice-President, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo. Dr Nkomo, who died in 1999, was not happy that the country did not have a health facility providing specialist healthcare services. The 200-bed medical centre has remained a white elephant and many reasons have been given for its failure to open.

The Zimbabwe Health Care Trust (ZHCT) led by Dr Daud Dube which initiated the medical centre project, have blamed lack of funding for the delay in opening the health institution. The hospital was opened in 2004 and was closed after just seven months when it was discovered that it was operating with obsolete equipment.

Many dates have been given for the re-opening of the specialist hospital whose decaying buildings are now being refurbished ahead of the planned re-opening. The project was initially a joint venture between NSSA, ZHCT, NETCARE and the Mining Industry Pension Fund (MIPF) but NSSA ended up funding the project alone. Parliament recently ruled that ZHCT has no claim to the hospital.

The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommended that since NSSA is the sole owner of the building, it should put the medical centre to tender to allow players with the capacity to run the institution to take over.

It is a fact that ZHCT which initiated the project has no capacity to run the institution hence the buildings have remained idle for years. ZHCT is said to owe NSSA $4 million, a confirmation that it does not have resources to run the envisaged hospital.

We are grateful to ZHCT for initiating the project which was in response to calls by Dr Nkomo for the country to establish a specialist hospital but as rightly pointed out by PAC, ZHCT has no claim to the hospital because it did not contribute a cent to its construction. Inviting players with the capacity to run the institution is the way forward which must be implemented as soon as possible.

NSSA needs to start enjoying returns from its investment. We have said it before that NSSA money are public funds and it is time members of the public start enjoying the benefits of their investment. We are told that NSSA now has the keys to the building and as already stated, the process of inviting tenders to take over and run the hospital should start immediately.

We believe there are many individuals and institutions that have the capacity to take over the hospital, equip it and run it thereby fulfilling Dr Nkomo’s dreams. The country continues to lose millions of dollars as individuals seek specialist medical services from outside the country. Many Medical Aid Societies are spending thousands of dollars sending members outside the country to seek specialist medical services which can be provided locally once this hospital starts operating.

The hospital when fully operational will have 13 departments and has the potential to increase its capacity to 265 beds. We want to once again implore the government and NSSA to move fast to implement the recommendations of PAC so that Ekusileni Hospital opens before the end of the year as pledged by the government.