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Sibongile Maruta  Herald Reporter

The Avenues Clinic yesterday commissioned a $10 million refurbishment of its facilities project it says will modernise the Harare-based healthcare service provider.

Avenues Clinic managing director Mr Searchmore Chaparadza said the project will be carried out in three phases.

It will start with ablution facilities before spreading to other sections of the hospital.

“The facility improvement and upgrade will also be done in phases and this is the first phase,” he said.

“The refurbishment of the project is partly funded by Nedbank and we are going to secure funding by other stakeholders.

“The areas that we are going to reorganise are ground floor, patient bathrooms, create space for additional theatres in the long run that will accommodate super speciality unit to ensure that all the treatments that people go outside the country for will be accessed here. The first phase that we were looking at today will take 11 months.

“What we are really trying to do is to track international development so that we are able to capture the number people who are going outside the country. The patient in Zimbabwe has been exposed to different service providers that operate in a fragmented manner and I urge all service providers to come together.”

Avenues Clinic board chairperson Mr Pearson Chitando said the project was biased towards neonatal and paediatrics respiratory care.

“The hospital was founded 35 years ago with locals in mind,” he said.

“Times have moved and we are infusing efficiency, our expansion programme has locals in mind. We are concentrating more on neonatal and also paediatrics which we are going to upscale.

“The extended emergency rooms will be customer friendly.

“What is going to be most significant and telling will be where visitors for patients will have a sitting area and also a coffee serving area like what other modern hospitals are offering.”