Plans for Chitungwiza infectious disease hospital gather pace . . . drugs warehouses near completion
PREPARATIONS to build an infectious disease hospital in Chitungwiza are at an advanced stage, it has been learnt.
The local authority’s director of health and environmental services, Dr Tonderai Kasu, said the draft project proposal has already been completed.
The department of urban planning, he said, is presently in the process of coming up with architectural drawings and designs for the hospital.
“In terms of preparations, we have so far secured the commitment of the full caretaker council that an Infectious Diseases Hospital for Chitungwiza be built by council,” said Dr Kasu.
“We have identified the site for the construction of the hospital and the department of urban planning has been asked to initiate the process of coming up with the architectural drawings and designs for the hospital.”
Dr Kasu said it was imperative for the town, which is the third-largest and fastest growing city in Zimbabwe, to have an infectious disease hospital.
“Chitungwiza is the third-largest and fastest growing urban centre in the country in terms of population,” he said. “Chitungwiza’s large and growing population requires its own infectious disease hospital for public health reasons.
“In this time when there are typhoid and cholera outbreaks, an infectious disease hospital becomes part of the necessary physical infrastructure that Chitungwiza city health department should have in order to fulfil its mandate of preventing and controlling disease outbreaks.
“Building an infectious disease hospital for Chitungwiza is thus an investment from which would be derived multi-generational social and societal benefits.”
It is believed that the envisaged hos- CHITUNGWIZA Municipality, in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has built two pharmaceutical warehouses, which will enable storage of large amounts of drugs mainly used in council clinics.
During an interview with The Herald in Chitungwiza this week, Chitugwiza Municipality’s director of health and environmental services, Dr Tonderai Kasu, said the warehouses were at roof level and in a few weeks, they would be usable.
“The construction of the UNDPfunded warehouses for pharmaceutical drugs are almost complete and these are built at Zengeza Clinic and another structure built at Seke South Clinic,” he said.
“As you know, one of our core mandate as the department of health is to implement national
pital will better manage multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB patients.
Other infectious diseases will be effectively managed as well.
“There would be better and more effective case management of diseases such as typhoid and cholera, and it would be easier to set up a treatment camp in the event of an outbreak of such conditions,” said Dr Kasu.
“It would also be easier to set up isolation facilities for conditions such as Ebola if the need were to arise, considering Chitungwiza’s close location to the airport.”
Challenges faced by Chitungwiza residents when seeking medical help from other health institutions, Dr Kasu said, would be a thing of the past when the hospital is completed.
“We have been experiencing challenges in the management of public health programmes which, among others, have to do with HIV and TB programmes, and these programmes need drugs, lots of drugs.”
Dr Kasu commended UNDP for funding the construction of the warehouses and said Chitungwiza’s health system would benefit immensely from the warehouses.
He said the drugs would be stored under a certain temperature so that when they are used on patients, they serve their purpose.
“Drugs are effective when they are stored and maintained under a certain temperature, so these warehouses would be equipped in such a way that the drugs can be stored under a certain temperature,” Dr Kasu.
“This will enable them to be effective when used by the patients.”
UNDP will assist with all the required equipment for the storage, said Dr Kasu.
multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patients,” he said. “Chitungwiza MDR-TB patients are often turned away from the City of Harare’s infectious disease hospitals —Beatrice Road Infectious Disease Hospital and Wilkins Hospital — because they are considered to be out of zone for Harare.
“In the past, the same patients would also be turned away from Chitungwiza Central Hospital because that hospital is not an infectious diseases hospital.
“The hospital has since set up a treatment unit for MDR-TB patients, but this has not been a comprehensive and holistic permanent solution to the problem.”
Chitungwiza has identified Tatenda Hall in Unit H as possible site for the planned health institution.