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The Minister of Health and Child Care Hon Dr David Parirenyatwa accompanied by Dr Mubengeranwa and the CEO of Mpilo Hospital Dr Lot Mantiziba tour the hospital ward during the Mpilo Central Hospital inverstor and donor conference yesterday

Patrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
THE health delivery system in the southern region of the country is set to improve significantly after investors and donors yesterday pledged to upgrade Mpilo Central Hospital’s infrastructure and fund purchasing of vital equipment such as computerised tomography (CT scan) machines.
The referral institution held an investor and donor conference that was aimed at raising $15 million to refurbish the institution’s infrastructure and purchase crucial medical equipment.

By the end of the conference, Dr Danboy Gandanhamo, a specialist radiologist, donated 2 CT scans worth thousands of dollars.
He also pledged to visit the institution twice a week to offer free services.

Doves Funeral Services pledged to take over the mortuary – a major development since the existing one has been malfunctioning.
The company also pledged to complete the construction of a new mortuary at the health institution.

Unki Mine donated 1,000 sheets, 50 filing cabinets and a freezer. National Blankets donated 40 blankets.
One donor, Dennis Ncube, pledged to purchase two dialysis machines and the Zambian embassy donated $1,000 towards the construction of a waiting room for mothers with hospitalised children.

Datlabs pledged three panels of pre-cast wall and Bulawayo residents and stakeholders through Bulawayo United Residents Association, have to date raised $10,000 towards the construction of a pre-cast wall.

$2,232 in cash was raised at the conference.
There are also other companies that have adopted wards while others promised to look after the lawn and orchard among other things at the hospital.

The assistance that has been rendered to the hospital complements equipment worth $5 million recently donated to the hospital by the Chinese government.

The Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr David Parirenyatwa, who was the guest of honour, commended the hospital’s management for holding the conference.

He said the government was fully behind public private partnerships (PPP’s).
“Government is clear on PPP’s. They are good but we need to be within certain parameters. Otherwise we will have runaway cases where private companies will benefit more than the hospital and poor patients. Sometimes these partnerships become expensive thereby compromising patient care or treatment becomes out of the reach of the poor,” said Dr Parirenyatwa.

“We don’t want partnerships that make profits from the poor people. It should benefit the hospital and the poor people.”
Dr Parirenyatwa said strengthening the medical institutions in Bulawayo was also going to strengthen pharmaceuticals.

“We need this institution to be a medical centre par excellency and we need to have good medical centre even in Victoria Falls. Bulawayo is ideal for the manufacturing of drugs and once the hospital starts working properly and with the pharmaceuticals in place, we will make Bulawayo alive again,” he said.

Dr Parirenyatwa said what was also worrying was the lack of specialists at hospitals in Bulawayo.
Mpilo chief executive officer Dr Lawrence Mantiziba said the future was bright for the institution which he said had seen over 4 million patients being attended to from 1991 to 2013.

“To date the hospital has received medical equipment from the China-Zimbabwe project worth $1,8 million with a balance of $4,2 million yet to be delivered. The government has completed the $200,000 pharmacy stores. They now await commissioning. The hospital has completed the computerisation project at a cost of $86,000 among other achievements noted recently,” he said.

Recently, the hospital signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with three Indian hospitals that will enable the institution to conduct specialist diagnostic operations and perform complicated operations including transplants.

The Indian hospitals namely Artemris, Fortis and Mendanta also signed an MoU with the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) that will see senior Indian doctors lecturing at its medical school.

The conference was held under the theme: ‘Towards being a centre of excellence in health care provision’.