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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Correspondent
THE Government, under its Transitional Stabilisation Programme, has said Ekusileni Hospital in Bulawayo will be opened in January next year.

The hospital will be offering emergency health care before reverting to its core mandate of being the country’s specialist institution.

Indians investors, Sharda Group of Institutions (SGI), are set to run Ekusileni Medical Centre and in July they visited the facility expressing satisfaction with its infrastructure.

They said they would start equipping the hospital before starting operations.

The (TSP) policy document, running from this month to December 2020, said the hospital would be opened in two months time under a joint venture partnership.

Ekusileni Hospital, a brainchild of late former Vice President Joshua Nkomo, remains closed since its construction in 2001. The TSP report stated that the hospital would be opened in two phases to be rolled in 2019 and 2020.

“Phase one of the operationalisation plan will begin in January 2019, targeting opening of the Accident and Emergency, Out Patients and Casualty Units, among others. Phase II, targeting opening of Operating Theatres, High Dependency Unit, Intensive Care Units and Dialysis, among others is expected to commence in January 2020,” reads the report.

“This will be done under a joint venture arrangement between the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) and an identified private investor. The private investor will contribute medical equipment, and carry out renovations to the health facility, as well as provide the medical services and linkages with local medical personnel.”

The report stated that the hospital is set to operate as a specialist hospital when it reaches full operational capacity.

“The hospital will provide secondary and tertiary care, covering preventive, diagnostic, as well as curative services, critical to ensuring improved access to health services for the people in Bulawayo and surrounding environs,” reads the report.

The specialist hospital was built in 2001 and was shut down in 2004 shortly after opening its doors to the public.

This was after it was discovered that the acquired equipment, worth millions of dollars, was obsolete.

The hospital has been undergoing renovations over the past two years due to the damage on infrastructure caused by termites and dereliction. — @nqotshili