Written by Gladys Nthenda
Malawi will in December 2017 have its first ever state of the art 270-bed capacity University Teaching Hospital which is expected to attract high caliber specialists from outside the country and reduce number of referrals sent outside the country.
According to Director of Dae Young Luke Hospital, Dr. Douglas Lungu the facility will be much bigger with sophisticated equipment as it will put together a teaching hospital in terms of services it will provide.
The Faculty of the University will be teaching at a College of Medicine to be established and working at the Teaching Hospital which will be divided into two sections comprising a general and a purely private hospital.
Dr. Lungu said the general hospital will cater for the general population and will provide services currently available in a normal hospital.
He explained that initially construction of the facility was expected to start on September 1 2015 to June 2017 when all buildings were to be ready and the teaching hospital open to the public but this has however delayed by six months.
“We were delayed a little bit in starting the project because we had to redesign the project and make sure that land was available. We are probably behind by about six months”
“It should be possible to have this hospital starting by the end of 2017 if not by the first quarter of 2018” Disclosed Lungu.
The investment is expected to cost around $30 Million partly because it will be constructed using Dae Young Construction Company but Lungu stated that if the works were done by an external construction company it would have costed close to $38 Million.
He pointed out that they have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with several universities in Korea which have shown interest to send specialists from USA to recruit doctors to help in running the University Teaching Hospital.
Asked on the impact the hospital will have on the country’s referrals Lungu equaled it to that of Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH)’s annual budget which he stated is quite substantive.
He disclosed that annually about 30 referrals are made which is very little compared to the demand Malawi has hence said more patients will benefit from the equipment and the diagnostics that the hospital will boast of.
Besides saving on forex, Lungu explained that patients from neighboring countries like Mozambique, Zambia Tanzania would also take advantage of the services which will be offered at the facility.
He said such an institution would also woo pharmaceutical companies and good research companies into Malawi.
“If you look at the totality of what Malawi is saving; actually it’s not just a matter of savings but a matter of gaining and it will also stimulate our own scientists to start working much harder in the field of medical practice” said Lungu.
In a later interview; Chief of Health Services Dr. Charles Mwansambo hailed the development describing it as exciting news as the country’s population is growing and needed more places where people can access medical attention.
Dr. Mwansambo expressed hope that the state of the art Teaching Hospital will help decongest KCH and in training some of the country’s doctors.
“With this facility we will save a lot of forex and on patients who would otherwise have been sent abroad who will be managed locally” Explained Mwansambo.
He pledged government’s support to make the project a success by giving it the necessary policy direction.
The project is being financed by Miracle for Africa Foundation chaired by Mr. Shang who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Dae Young Holdings in Korea.
