News / National
Ekusileni Medical Centre now admitting patients
27 Jul 2021 at 18:00hrs | Views
EKUSILENI Medical Centre has opened its doors to the public with two Covid-19 patients having been admitted on Tuesday.
In an interview, the acting chief executive officer of Ekusileni Hospital Absolom Dube confirmed the development, saying they were ready to handle more patients.
The hospital has been declared a national covid-19 centre. The opening of the hospital, will ease the pressure on other isolation centres in the city which were fast running out of bed space.
"We opened the hospital today and so far, we have two covid-19 patients that have been admitted. We have a capacity of about 70 beds but for now we will accommodate about 20 patients because of limited staff and resources. This just a starting point, but we plan to increase our capacity to 200 beds in the near future. We have had various partners coming in to assist us with food as well as other resources," he said.
Ekusileni was closed more than 15 years ago when its equipment was declared obsolete. The hospital, a brainchild of the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo, has experienced a number of false starts and numerous efforts to reopen it have failed.
Last year in April, there was hope that the institution would be re-opened after the Government identified the centre as one of the institutions that was earmarked to house cases of the Covid-19 in the city.
The decision on the opening of Ekusileni Medical Centre comes after an assessment by the Health Professions Authority (HPA) team.
The team comprising 15 members, visited Ekusileni Medical Centre about two weeks ago to conduct an assessment on whether the health facility was ready to operate.
Thorngrove Infectious Diseases Hospital, the United Bulawayo Hospitals and Mater Dei Hospital are the health institutions admitting Covid-19 patients in Bulawayo.
Last year, Government announced that the hospital will be transformed into a specialist teaching research hospital under the National University of Science and Technology (Nust), with Nssa tasked with operationalising the facility.
In an interview, the acting chief executive officer of Ekusileni Hospital Absolom Dube confirmed the development, saying they were ready to handle more patients.
The hospital has been declared a national covid-19 centre. The opening of the hospital, will ease the pressure on other isolation centres in the city which were fast running out of bed space.
"We opened the hospital today and so far, we have two covid-19 patients that have been admitted. We have a capacity of about 70 beds but for now we will accommodate about 20 patients because of limited staff and resources. This just a starting point, but we plan to increase our capacity to 200 beds in the near future. We have had various partners coming in to assist us with food as well as other resources," he said.
Ekusileni was closed more than 15 years ago when its equipment was declared obsolete. The hospital, a brainchild of the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo, has experienced a number of false starts and numerous efforts to reopen it have failed.
The decision on the opening of Ekusileni Medical Centre comes after an assessment by the Health Professions Authority (HPA) team.
The team comprising 15 members, visited Ekusileni Medical Centre about two weeks ago to conduct an assessment on whether the health facility was ready to operate.
Thorngrove Infectious Diseases Hospital, the United Bulawayo Hospitals and Mater Dei Hospital are the health institutions admitting Covid-19 patients in Bulawayo.
Last year, Government announced that the hospital will be transformed into a specialist teaching research hospital under the National University of Science and Technology (Nust), with Nssa tasked with operationalising the facility.
Source - chronicle
