CHITUNGWIZA Central Hospital (CCH) plans to construct a US$250 million five-star health facility in a bid to avail top-notch service.
Already the Government hospital is offering services and facilities comparable to any in the private sector.
Construction of the five-star hospital is expected to be complete by 2018 and the development comes at a time when the country is recovering from economic hardships that were caused by Western imposed sanctions since the turn of the millennium.
The sanctions have affected major sectors of the economy including the health service delivery system.
However, due to public private partnerships, the quality of health delivery in the country has continued to improve, a situation that has seen CCH being the first hospital in Southern Africa to achieve an ISO certification due to its competitive and high quality services.
In an interview, CCH chief executive officer, Dr Obadiah Moyo said the construction of the hospital will be done through joint ventures with private players who will assist to boost the required capital.
He said the institution has started laying the groundwork needed to commence the construction of the historic health facility.
“It is a project that will take time to construct, but we expect that within five years it will be complete,” Dr Moyo said.
“The most important thing is that we have already started putting out fillers although we haven’t done an official thing yet, there is a lot of enthusiasm from private players to fund the project.”
Due to lack of resources in the public health sector, many patients were struggling to access expensive health diagnostics that were only offered at private hospitals at a higher cost.
Dr Moyo said the main purpose of the new hospital is to enable socially disadvantaged people to access high quality health services at an affordable cost.
“The new hospital will still be looking at the socially disadvantaged, that remain our key factor,” he said.
“We are doing this for the benefit of the poor so that they can also experience the same comfort which people with money experience when they go to private hospitals.
“We want to bring the facility for the benefit of the poor.”
The hospital, said Dr Moyo, will feature latest medical technology that will enable the treatment and diagnosis of complicated health conditions.
“The new hospital will be a centre of excellence that will be able to offer complicated health services that are limited in the country such as kidney transplanting and heart operations,” he said.
“All these services will be done under public health services guidelines to ensure equal quality health access for all.”
Chitungwiza Central Hospital was elevated from Mashonaland East Provincial Hospital to a central hospital in 2005.
Its operations are supposed to be financed from National Budget Grants. However, these grants have been so little that they could not pay for provisions and services such as drugs, fuel, food, and infrastructure maintenance.
Despite the challenges, Dr Moyo said, over the past years, the hospital has been able to upgrade its facilities and improve its services into world class standards through PPPs. Since then, CCH has demonstrated excellent service delivery with treating facilities and equipment similar to those of private institutions.
The hospital has managed to attract more consultants to cover specialities like radiology, ophthalmology, surgery and urology, paediatrics and anaesthetics, obstetrics and gynaecology.
An ophthalmologist and ophthalmology nurses have been trained and have set up a unit that compares to any other private sector units with a full range of eye testing and eye surgery equipment in place.
The theatre department is equipped with latest six anaesthetic machines, two diathermy plates, LED lights, four theatre beds and laparoscopy equipment.
In 2012, the hospital’s laboratory attained first position in Laboratory Quality Management Systems and a four-star rating in a World Health Organisation regional survey.
The rehabilitation department has set a record of attendance at 80 percent of patients within 15 minutes of arrival in the department.