The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
ZIMBABWE’s health sector is likely to benefit from India’s medical experts who want to partner local institutions in a bid to improve the sector with advanced machinery, specialist doctors and other medical resources.
Mr Vijay Mehta, a health care facilitator with Wockhardt Hospitals in India told the Sunday News that they have identified Zimbabwe as a good destination for development.
“We want to work closely with medical facilities in the country so that patients from Zimbabwe do not necessarily have to go to India for treatment but they can access the specialist treatment that they need locally.
“We want to have skills transfer whereby local doctors will go to India and gain knowledge by doing the specific procedures that are not locally available. They will then return and start doing it locally with the help of Indian specialists,” he said.
He said local nurses would also need training so that they could assist doctors who have undergone specialist training and patients.
The medical personnel will gain updated knowledge in the field and learn how to use advanced technology and medical equipment.
“We have to understand that the world is evolving technologically especially in the medical field, there are many changes that Zimbabwe needs to embrace if they are to develop their medical field. Partnering with India will aid in facilitating this necessary change,” he added.
The health facilitator said India had evolved in areas of medical research and management which would benefit Zimbabwean medical practitioners in treating specific conditions. In the long run Mr Mehta said their wish was to see Zimbabwe as a referral centre for people in Africa.
“We hope to see Zimbabwe evolving to be a destination of integrity for people in places like Malawi, Zambia and many more.
People should travel to Zimbabwe and seek these specialist services and this would grow the health sector and the nation at large,” said Mr Mehta.
The facilitator said Zimbabwe should not be left out in the development of its health sector and institutions like Mpilo Central Hospital and United Bulawayo Hospitals should have their hospitals renovated to suit the new developments.
He said once dialogue with the Ministry of Health and Child Care had been done, hospitals must avail what they have in terms of facilities and then investors could come in and refurbish, upgrade, rehabilitate and equip the institutions with modern equipment. They would also bring in the required human resources and medical experts.
According to the Indian representatives, it costs less for people to be treated in India than in South Africa which is why many people opt for it. They said the cost of treatment in India is only a third of what South Africa asks for.
Last week Wockhardt Hospitals met local doctors, medical insurance companies and former patients who were treated in India in a bid to familiarise themselves with them. Wockhardt Hospitals’ presence in Bulawayo was to celebrate good health and better life in the coming years with all treated patients coming together.
“These are the same people who underwent stress and anxiety in the past four to five years when they realised that they needed to undergo specialist medical treatment and they had difficult decisions to make. There were patients from all specialties ranging from cardiac, orthopaedics and spine and urology,” he said.
Wockhardt Hospital is a group of nine hospitals with close to 2 000 beds. It has 700 doctors under its umbrella in India.
Wockhardt Hospital International Business Group head for hospitals Mr Somnath Shetty spoke about how Wockhardt had been privileged to be able to serve more than 400 Zimbabwean patients in the last five years.
He also unveiled future plans which involve proposing to conduct nursing workshops and surgical workshops along with local doctors and nurses in Bulawayo in a clear indication of willingness to transfer skills and expertise for the benefit of local medical experts.
There were patients who were willing to share their experience when they underwent treatment in Wockhardt in India. Most of them were witnesses to the world of quality standard treatment and delightful patient service during their stay in the hospital.
The group of hospitals specialises in cardiology and cardiac surgery, neurology, vascular, gyneacological and reconstructive surgery to name a few. They also specialise in organ transplant which many Zimbabweans have undergone.
