Mpilo Hospital looks for partnerships

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BULAWAYO’S largest but ailing referral hospital, Mpilo Central Hospital, is inviting investors to partner it through Public Private Partnership.

BULAWAYO’S largest but ailing referral hospital, Mpilo Central Hospital, is inviting investors to partner it through Public Private Partnership (PPPs) in the provision of quality health service to the public.

by our correspondent

Mpilo Hospital chief executive officer (CEO) Laurence Mantiziba said the institution, which needs a whooping US$15 million to regain its former glory, was now open for joint ventures with private players in order to raise capital for reviving the institution.

“Over US$15 million is needed to restore the hospital to its former position and this can be raised through joint ventures,” said Mantiziba in a recent interview in Bulawayo.

According to the hospital report, the health institution is facing challenges in setting up a pharmacy department and needs private partnerships for a joint venture. The hospital is offering an opportunity for investors to complete construction of a mortuary which has remained uncompleted for the past 15 years.

The hospital also seeks investors to establish a funeral parlour, as well as a bigger and modern laboratory — a key component for the diagnosis, monitoring, treatment and prevention of disease. The hospital is also looking for partnerships that will help set up X-Ray and Renal Unit departments.

Mantiziba said a number of companies such as Corporate24 and Doves Funeral Services had already partnered Mpilo Hospital in some sectors.

“Already, we now have a joint venture between Mpilo and Corporate24 in which the latter shall develop two private wards at the hospital. The equipment has been procured while the renovations are to start,” he said, adding that they had also partnered with another company, Snowhite, in the provision of laundry services.

Chitungwiza Hospital CEO Obadiah Moyo said the Zimbabwe public sector was facing numerous challenges and there was need for innovative solutions to help the situation. He said Chitungwiza Hospital had adopted the PPPs strategy as a way of raising capital and the institution was “now a citadel of PPPs in Zimbabwe’s health sector”.

Moyo said partnerships between the public and private sectors in healthcare were important for promoting economic development. “Chitungwiza Hospital previously benefitted from the Target Approach and appropriately utilised the funds.

The funds were exhausted and the hospital resorted to operating with some PPPs on a small scale in the theatres and ophthalmology, renal, laboratory and radiology, pharmacy and dental and mortuary,” said Moyo.

He said when Chitungwiza Hospital made joint ventures with private companies, service delivery was vastly improved after the partners brought state-of-the-art equipment to the hospital. The result was that Chitungwiza became the first public hospital in southern Africa to achieve ISO certification.

Moyo said opportunities for private player participation in the joint venture projects in the Zimbabwe health care system could be broadly classified along key thrust areas such as infrastructure development, management and operations among others.

He said the participation of the private sector was expected to spur innovation thereby quickly bridging the resource gap in infrastructure for health care. A feasibility study needed to be carried out before the private partnership programes commenced, he said.

“This helps in efficient resource allocation, so as to channel resources towards projects with a better chance of success,” said Moyo, adding that it was important to ensure that the PPPs would not make the health delivery system inaccessible to the economically disadvantaged members of society.