Ekusileni hospital to start with 60 beds

EKUSILENI Medical Centre in Bulawayo is now expected to be opened anytime this year with an initial 60 beds, officials said today.

In January, press reports indicated that it would be in use this month.

However, in a tour by Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko, minister Simon Khaya Moyo and Phodiso officials the April timeline is now off track.

Khaya-Moyo said some structures would be demolished.

He added that government was now planning to have equipment imported duty free from South Africa.

The equipment would be first taken to Harare for inspection by health officials.

Phodiso is a South African firm engaged to equip the hospital.

Ekusileni, a brainchild of late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, has been lying derelict since 2004 after it was shut down shortly after opening its doors.

The hospital was closed after it was discovered that equipment worth millions of dollars acquired by the Zimbabwean Health Care Trust (ZHCT), after renting the institution from the National Social Security Authority (NSSA), was obsolete.

The upmarket 369-bed hospital facility was built with funding from NSSA, the property owner.