Mpilo gets new dental, X-ray equipment

MPILO Central Hospital's Dental and X-ray departments have undergone a significant transformation with the installation of new state-of-the-art equipment.

The upgrade enables the hospital to efficiently handle cases, from basic procedures to complex ones, using modern technology, all under one roof. The previous challenges of using outdated dental equipment for basic procedures and frequent breakdowns of the X-ray machines are now resolved, paving the way for improved patient care and service delivery.

Dr Narcisius Dzvanga, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Mpilo Central Hospital ,said the hospital had been limited in its operations due to old machinery.

"We were using the old dental unit that was there before, the machines that we had, were now obsolete and beyond repair, the suppliers said they were also out of production, then we got the new machines via the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dental Unit. The old machines could no longer do the work properly, but these two new dental chairs come embedded with x-ray machines," said Dr Dzvanga.

The previous dental chairs did not have X-ray machines and minimum procedures like extractions were being done only due to the limitation of machinery. Dr Dzvanga said the new dental chairs will see more patients being attended to and have specialists who will attend to patients.

"More cases will now be done and very few will end up in the main theatre now that we have this kind of state-of-the-art dental chair. We also have two dentists and two dental therapists, who will manage the units. We also have enlisted the services of a maxillofacial surgeon, who concentrates on areas around the head and neck other than dental. The specialist is from Cuba and is in Zimbabwe on a programme for the next three years or more. They come on a rotational basis in our hospitals and this time he is based at Mpilo," added Dr Dzvanga.

The CMO said he was pleased to have the specialist in the county and at the hospital, as there has always been a need for their services.

"The need is always massive because of accidents that occur. The specialist is trying hard to cope with the patients that come through in their numbers and if they are extensive, he takes them to the main theatre. We can only admire the arrangement that is there between the Government of Zimbabwe and Cuba, this has been ongoing for decades. These specialists come in what are called brigades, however, numbers have been diminishing over the years because we are now able to produce our own specialists in Zimbabwe. However, there are some areas where the locals are still few in number and we still have to get the specialists from Cuba," added Dr Dzanga.

The Maxillofacial surgeon will cover the southern region and all cases needing his specialty will be referred to Mpilo Central Hospital. The hospital also took receipt of a digital x-ray machine and a portable one that can be wheeled to patients who are not mobile and are in the Intensive Care Unit and the High Dependence Unit.

"The hospital was using old x-ray machines including a computerised tomography (CT) scan but were also frequently breaking down but we now have these modern ones that are finer than the old ones, so this is a good development," he added.

The CMO said the Mpilo Radiology Department now resembles international radiology departments with the new high-tech equipment that was being installed under one roof. Dr Dzvanga, said there have been major developments in central hospitals, a testimony of the Second Republic's thrust of leaving no one and no place behind.

"There have been about four major developments here at Mpilo, we have two state-of-the-art dental and maxillofacial chairs with a compressor and brand new x-ray machines. We got the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan. The going is good, there might be one or two more developments coming our way again soon. But the month of February has been good to us, all these developments happened during this period and we are very excited about these developments." he said.

The CMO said their charges will remain minimal to ensure all patients who visit the institution access the services at affordable rates.