PSMAS services at Karanda, St Albert’s Mission hospitals

MEMBERS of the Premier Service Medical Aid Society in Mashonaland Central can now access the society’s services at Karanda and St Albert’s Mission hospitals.

This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the health institutions and PSMAS at the beginning of the year.

Karanda Mission Hospital’s senior nursing officer Mr Friday Chimukangara and PSMAS’ public relations manager Mr Arthur Choga confirmed the development.

“We are now accepting PSMAS medical aid here at the hospital,” he said. “We entered into an agreement with them at the beginning of the year. They seeded $10 000 with the hospital and we are deducting money for services rendered to patients from that seed money.

“The response from the membership has been encouraging. We hope to continue working with them for the improvement of the health delivery system in Mashonaland Central.”

Said Mr Choga: “We will continue to engage all stakeholders in order to achieve world class service for our members. Partnering key service providers is obviously a major part of that engagement and we will strive to make sure that we maintain this relationship the best possible way.

“We believe the fruits of our turnaround will be good for all. We want to thank service providers, members and member organisations that continue to stand with us as we make strides in this turnaround.”

Previously, members of the society from areas around Karanda and St Albert’s Mission hospitals used to travel to Bindura to access services.

Karanda Mission Hospital in Mt Darwin is nationally renowned for its care and support, especially its chronic and terminal disease management.

It is a 134-bed facility with specialists and general care.

The hospital is licensed for 150 beds and on an average work day sees between 10–20 surgeries and 200–300 outpatients.

The hospital’s inpatient capacity is usually 90 percent full most of the time.

St Albert’s Mission Hospital is an 85-bed hospital with a catchment area of over 10 000 people. It is the only hospital covering large parts of the province along the Zambezi Valley escarpment.