Delivering Care
Gertrude Nyathi walks calmly into Zimbabwe’s Mahusekwa Hospital for antenatal care in Mashonaland, where she is expected to give birth in the next five months.
In a country where medical facilities are obsolete, patients flock to seek medical care at the Chinese-aided hospital, seen by many as a game changer in Marondera district.
“Before this hospital was built, pregnant women had to travel long distances to go to Harare for antenatal services and some even gave birth on the way. The Mahusekwa Hospital has brought great relief to locals,” Nyathi told ChinAfrica.
The facility, also known as the China-Zimbabwe Friendship Hospital, stands as a testament to the growing ties between the two countries. The $6-million hospital in Mashonaland was commissioned in 2013 and was built under a Chinese aid project to help Zimbabwe to provide quality health services in rural areas.
The state-of-the-art medical facility features departments such as dental, paediatrics, radiology, physiotherapy, maternity, operation theatre, and mortuary, and serves a population of over 130,000, including people living as far as Harare, located some 100 km away. It has significantly improved health care delivery in the broader Marondera rural district. The hospital receives over 400 patients a week. It has about 170 staff, including medical doctors, as well as modern equipment.
Relief for patients
Patients receiving treatment for different illnesses have praised the hospital. “I am so thankful to the surgeons for operating on my son,” said Mercy Kudzanai, a mother of two.
“My second-born child is now four, but I recall how traumatised I was seeing my son in the operation theatre. I am grateful to the medical staff at the Mahusekwa Hospital for their dedication.”
A Marondera-based primary school teacher recounted how she recently survived a protracted urinary infection thanks to the swift intervention she got from urologists at the hospital. “This facility has competent health workers; my condition might have worsened had it not been for the quality treatment I got here,” Tinashe Tichavangana told ChinAfrica.
Tichavangana has since been recommending her colleagues with any illness to seek medical attention locally, and said those who have followed her advice have reported good results. The hospital is certainly saving lives, according to Given Tonderai, an accountant in eastern Harare. He travelled to Mashonaland for treatment of his chronic headache and said it was worth the trip.
Alfred Hlophe, a truck driver based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland region, is also impressed with quality medical attention at the hospital for his backache, which almost rendered him jobless. “Due to my long-distance driving, I used to have a constant backache,” Hlophe said. “This affected my work until a colleague advised me to seek medical attention at the China-Zimbabwe Friendship Hospital and I have now recovered.”
The modern medical facility was built under a Chinese-aid project to provide quality health services in the countryside, where 70 percent of the population resides.
Vital support
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa recently thanked China for its selfless assistance, emphasising the important role played by the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiatives in Zimbabwe’s infrastructure construction. Mnangagwa affirmed Zimbabwe’s commitment to deepening the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.
China and Zimbabwe share a long history of cooperation in the health sector. Since 1985, China has sent 21 medical teams to the Southern African country. In 2022, China also handed over a pharmaceutical warehouse to the Zimbabwean government to boost the country’s drug storage capacity and enhance its health care system.
China’s continued assistance in key infrastructural projects has delivered fruitful results, and bilateral cooperation has fostered common development and prosperity for all.
According to a recent joint study by ICAP Global Health and Tsinghua University, China has invested over $750 million in health-related activities and projects in 51 African countries.
Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhou Ding said that in recent years, China and Zimbabwe have achieved remarkable results in the field of health cooperation.
“The Chinese medical team in Zimbabwe, the China-Zimbabwe Friendship Hospital, the National Drug Warehouse in Zimbabwe, and the Bright Journey cataract treatment project have become the outstanding business cards of the friendship between the two countries,” Zhou said recently when he paid a courtesy call on Zimbabwe’s Health and Child Care Minister Douglas Mombeshora in Harare.
Speaking at the same event, Mombeshora spoke highly of the friendship between the two countries.
“We sincerely thank the Chinese government for its long-term selfless help and valuable support for Zimbabwe’s health care development. We look forward to further deepening exchanges and cooperation between the two sides in the field of health,” Mombeshora stated.
