EKUSILENI Medical Centre has been placed under 24-hour
police guard following the theft of donated borehole equipment on Tuesday.
Thieves cut the fence to access the hospital premises at
around 4AM and stole a compressor and a water pump that were donated and
recently installed on the hospital grounds. The acting chief executive officer
at Ekusileni Medical Centre Dr Absalom Dube said the hospital is now under
24-hour police guard until further notice.
“To ensure safety of the equipment that we have been
receiving, we have engaged the Zimbabwe Republic Police, through the Bulawayo
Provincial Affairs Minister Cde Judith Ncube. They started guarding the
premises on Tuesday and will be complementing the security personnel that were
already guarding the premises,” said Dr Dube, in an interview after receiving
donations from the King Lobengula Royal Family Trust.
The Bulawayo City Council-run Thorngrove infectious
diseases hospital, which also has received Covid-19 donations is under 24-hour
municipal police guard.
In terms of ground covered at Ekusileni to admit Covid-19
patients, Dr Dube said more work was still to be done, hence the hospital was
not yet ready to open its doors.
“The hospital is not yet fully ready to admit its first
patient as it still needs to have some installations to ensure safety of health
staff . The hospital was not originally meant for infectious diseases. So, it
has to be modified to suit the purpose. We need extractors to extract infected
air from rooms, in ICU and where we admit confirmed cases,” he said.
“The other outstanding issues that are there include
partitioning, as in which one is the green zone and red zone and the direction
of floor from donning to doffing (areas to wear and remove PPEs). Finishing off
of the sluice rooms aspects, the laundry aspect, the kitchen aspect, the
theatre section as someone with Covid-19 may need to be operated on,” said Dr
Dube.
He said more installations still need to be made while some
wards needed touch ups, such as the maternity and theatre wings.
“We need to make sure that we have theatre facility. We
also need to work on the delivery room, it needs negative air pressure and
installation of beds as well. In terms of having our first patients, these
structural issues and key medical elements such as monitors are not yet there.
The side lockers and foot stools are not yet available,” he said.
The hospital has an admission capacity of 22 but is working
to increasing it to 200.
Meanwhile, the King Lobengula Royal Family Trust donated 96
blankets through the ‘I Am For Bulawayo Fighting Covid-19’ campaign to the
hospital. The donation was presented to Ekusileni Medical Centre yesterday by
Mr Peter ZwideKa-Langa Khumalo.
In his remarks, Mr Khumalo called for the Bulawayo
community and Zimbabweans at large to unite behind the cause and complement
Government efforts in combating Covid-19. Chronicle
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