The Sunday Mail
Robin Muchetu in Bulawayo
Investors will finally begin installing the necessary equipment to make Ekusileni Medical Centre operational on July 15, 2018, President Emmerson Mnangagwa was pledged.
Residents of Bulawayo have waited 17 years for the facility to open, and after touring it yesterday, President Mnangagwa said he expected Ekusileni to open before December.
The facility is the brainchild of national hero Dr Joshua Nkomo.
“When this new dispensation came in to being, we decided to attend to this institution and I discussed with (Health and Child Care) Minister David Parirenyatwa that everything has to be done to make it operational.
“I was speaking to him and I said what’s going on today, and he said we are not yet there. Then I said to him, I said we can go ahead. I am happy to say that on the 15th of July, the investors will be on the ground,” he said.
President Mnangagwa said failure to open Ekusileni would be a betrayal of Dr Nkomo’s vision and legacy.
“As long as I am President, this shall work; no one must stand in our way, any assistance that you want you must tell me and we will make it work.”
He said the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) must work with the Indian investor to make the 15-department medical centre operate optimally.
Dr Parirenyatwa said the Indians would bring equipment and experts who would not only treat patients but train local medical personnel as well.
“On 15 July, they literally take over the place. It will be a multi-disciplinary hospital, which means that if you go to hospital and you want orthopaedic (care), you are not referred to another hospital.
“We want it to have multiple specialties and we have enough room for that. We have identified the areas that we want … We will also have members of the (Nkomo) family on the board,” he said.
Dr Nyasha Masuka, chair of the team overseeing the institution, added: “We are looking at brain and spine surgery; this will be done here together with transplants of the heart and liver that many people are having to travel to India for.
“The specialists from India also said they are willing to come in for capacity development for local specialists, which is good.”
