Nust says it is ready to run Ekusileni Hospital

Zim Now Writer

THE Bulawayo-based National University of Science and Technology (Nust) Medical School has said it is ready to take over Ekusileni Hospital operations after their earlier plans were shelved following the setting aside of the health institution as a national Covid-19 isolation centre.

The transformation of the National Social Security Authority (NSSA)-run institution into a specialist teaching research hospital, with Nust providing technical expertise, was approved by Cabinet in 2020.

The health institution was the brainchild of the late Vice President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and was built in 2001 as a specialist hospital.

Ekusileni lay idle for years, before the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic saw the facility being designated as a Covid-19 treatment facility, putting on hold Nust’s arrangement to run the facility.

Nust Medical School Executive Dean, Professor Elopy Sibanda said they are awaiting approval from authorities to start the project.

“The process of transitioning from that emergency to the usual specialist treatment will be finalised once the emergency (Covid-19) is declared gone. We are waiting for the principals to tell us that the emergency is now over then we can run the hospital,” said Prof Sibanda.

The state-of-the-art facility is set to provide an opportunity for students to undertake the necessary training and cutting-edge health research, while providing a service to the nation.

Prof Sibanda said there was need to have specialist doctors, saying the facility will come in handy in achieving this goal.

“We need specialists and not only general doctors as a country. That is why we have Ekusileni Hospital which is meant to be a training hospital which is earmarked to do various specialists services like kidney transplants.”

The state-of-the-art medical facility operated for just seven months before it was closed in 2004 after it was discovered that the acquired equipment worth millions of dollars, was obsolete.