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Ashley Phiri, [email protected]

IN a significant step towards enhancing healthcare services in the region, Old Mutual Zimbabwe has made a timely donation of US$12 758 to Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo. 

The generous contribution is earmarked for the furnishing of a new day centre theatre, a crucial component in the hospital’s ongoing mission to become a comprehensive medical facility.

Old Mutual southern region business development and stakeholder manager, Mrs Gladys Mugalo, said they made a donation to the hospital because health care is part of the pillars that the organisation is concerned about. 

She said they hoped the community will greatly benefit from the donation.

“We are glad to be part of the hospital’s journey towards becoming an integrated wellness centre. As an organisation, we like looking after our communities and health is one of the pillars that we are concerned about,” said Mrs Mugalo. 

“We are happy that Mater Dei decided to get equipment for the day care centre theatre because it supports our vision. We hope the community will greatly benefit from this initiative,” she said.

The donation from Old Mutual has allowed the hospital to establish a state-of-the-art theatre facility that includes a range of essential components. The new structure features a patient changing room, staff changing room, staff cafeteria, sluice room, storage room, theatre sitting room, procedure room and recovery room. 

Notably, the procedure room is equipped with a modular theatre operating table and light and a crash cart,among other top-tier medical equipment.

The newly established theatre will serve as a cornerstone of Mater Dei Hospital’s vision of providing integrated medical services under one roof. 

With the aim of offering specialist services, the hospital has already made strides with the eye unit already fully functional and the renal unit, recently commissioned. 

Additional centres are in the pipeline, pending approval from the relevant departments.

Mater Dei medical director, Dr Adolf Macheka, said the support from Old Mutual is invaluable as they strive to provide high-quality medical care to the community. 

He said the donation will allow patients to get assistance locally instead of travelling out of the country to access specialist services.

“We want to thank Old Mutual for their generous donation, this will help us in our vision of providing specialist services locally as opposed to people travelling out of the country to India, South Africa and others,” said Dr Macheka. 

“We are not short on specialist know-how, it is just equipment that we lack and Old Mutual is helping us execute our vision.”

Mater Dei chief executive officer, Sister Maureen Jameson, said the donation has helped speed up the process of them becoming a one stop centre.

“This whole project has been a massive undertaking because we saw the need to change the scene of medicine in Bulawayo. The timely donation from Old Mutual has helped us speed up the project of becoming a one stop centre for all medical needs,” she said.

“The specialist centres will save patients the time to be driving from one place to the other and we want to make them as child friendly as possible to reduce the trauma that hospitals generally have on people.”