Ekusileni to handle Covid-19 cases

05 Jul, 2020 - 00:07 0 Views
Ekusileni to handle Covid-19 cases Ekusileni Hospital

The Sunday News

Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter
THE Government has clarified that the establishment of Ekusileni Medical Centre as a specialist teaching research hospital will not scuttle efforts of establishing a national Covid-19 isolation centre at the facility.

The hospital, a brainchild of late Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo, has experienced a number of false starts and numerous efforts to reopen the institution whose building is owned by the National Social Security Company (Nssa) have failed.

The hospital was opened in 2001 and closed in 2004 because it had outdated equipment. Two months ago, however, there was hope that the institution would be reopened after the Government identified the centre as one of the institutions that was earmarked to house cases of the coronavirus (Covid-19) in the city. When it was initially reopened in 2001, the hospital operated briefly and was shut down after it was discovered the acquired equipment, worth millions of dollars, was obsolete.

Last week Government announced that the hospital will now be transformed into a specialist teaching research hospital under the National University of Science and Technology (Nust), with the National Social Security Authority (Nssa) tasked with operationalising the facility.

Speaking after a provincial Covid-19 task force meeting at Ekusileni yesterday Local Government and Public Works Minister July Moyo said works to establish the Covid-19 national isolation centre would continue unabated.

Minister Moyo is a member of the President Mnangagwa appointed inter-ministerial taskforce on Covid-19 where he heads the sub-committee on resource mobilisation and co-ordination and also leads Bulawayo’s response to the pandemic.

Minister Moyo, who was accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Raymore Machingura, commended the provincial taskforce saying they were working round the clock to ensure that the centre admits its first patients.

“Nothing has really changed regarding the establishment of the isolation centre, Nust and Nssa will work on their part of starting the training institute but also work to have the isolation centre will be ongoing, while at the same time accepting the mandate that have been given to them to establish the training institution.

“We don’t want to stop the work that has been done to date in establishing this facility as a national Covid-19 isolation centre. Actually, Nust, Nssa, officials from public works and all stakeholders who have been working here, will continue to ensure that the isolation centre is opened soonest,” said Minister Moyo.

In terms of the actual opening of the hospital, the minister said while the pace was worrying, he was happy with the progress that was being made.

“To date I know that the #IAM4Bulawayo fighting Covid-19 initiative is busy making various orders for the centre, I know the beds have been ordered, as well as the green and red zone demarcations have been done. Tenders were flighted and awarded; the various companies are now making their deliveries. We are now working on the negative extraction of air within the wards, our emphasis is that work should not stop at all, everything that is happening should be completed,” said Minister Moyo.

On the operationalisation of the specialist teaching research centre, the minister said their goal was to model the institution around the model of Cuba and help establish medical tourism.

“Cabinet made a decision that this institution will now be run by Nust as a teaching hospital but Nssa, as the owners of the building will help in equipping it so that the teaching can be done and we have a well-developed scientific institution for medical training,” he said.

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