Maseru District Hospital opens doors

The hospital was supposed to have opened its doors in 2023 but government bureaucracy and tender scandals that led to court cases delayed the completion of the work.

The new hospital will focus on HIV, non-communicable diseases, cancer, TB, eye care and children’s illnesses.

It will also have doctors’ residences, and telemedicine teaching equipment and will offer internship and practical programmes for medical students.

The Deputy Commissioner of Health Commission of Hubei Province, Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control of Hubei Province, Liu Dongru, told thepost during a tour of the hospital earlier this year that the hospital will be a model of the cooperation between hospitals in China and Africa.

Liu Dongru was leading the delegation of senior health officials from the Health Commission of Hubei Province, Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, and the Wuhan Number One Hospital.

He said the Wuhan Hospital of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine (also known as Wuhan No 1 Hospital) in Hubei Province has established a paired cooperation relationship with the Maseru District Hospital in Lesotho.

Director Liu said this was meant to respond to the initiative of establishing a cooperation mechanism for hospitals in China and Africa.

The two sides will cooperate in various forms such as experience sharing, remote consultation, academic exchanges, personnel training and specialty development and carry out multi-channel and all-round cooperation in medical treatment, education, research and prevention, so as to further enhance the comprehensive capacity of the Maseru District Hospital.

Since 1997, China has been dispatching medical teams to Lesotho.

Currently, nine members of the 17th Chinese Medical Team to Lesotho are working locally, with specialties covering obstetrics and gynaecology, internal medicine, general surgery, orthopedics, acupuncture, anaesthesiology and radiology.

Over the past 26 years, the Chinese Medical Team to Lesotho has treated more than 200 000 patients, delivered more than 10 000 newborns, diagnosed and treated a large number of common and frequently occurring diseases, and cured many difficult diseases.

Such operations as “hip replacement”, “correction of congenital horseshoe foot”, “anastomosis of the brachial aorta”, and “resection of huge ovarian tumors”, which were difficult to perform locally, have been completed successfully.

A series of new techniques have been carried out by the medical team, such as modified radical mastectomy, tension-free inguinal hernia repair using patch, and ultrasus-guided iliofascial block anaesthesia.

Meanwhile, parliament’s Social Cluster Committee chairman Mokhothu Makhalanyane told thepost that they asked had the Maseru City Council how it plans to control traffic at the hospital.

“We want to know how vehicles will enter the hospital and exit,” Makhalanyane said.

He said some areas are expected to be occupied by street vendors.

“We have instructed them to come to us with a plan,” he said.

He disclosed that during their first meeting with the MCC on Monday they did not get any clear plans of how things will be done.

“They were not prepared at all. They did not have answers.”

He said taxi associations and the public are keen to know how things will be done.

“So that things are not done carelessly.”

Makhalanyane said they have asked the MCC when it will open the closed Mpilo Road that enters the hospital.

“All those roads there will have to be monitored well and administered so that problems do not occur,” he said.

Nkheli Liphoto