Cimas to build hospital in Bulawayo

HEALTH insurer Cimas plans to build a hospital in Bulawayo as it seeks to expand its investment portfolio in the health sector and ensure that the country has state-of-the-art healthcare infrastructure that could contribute to improved health outcomes, chief executive officer, Mr Vulindlela Ndlovu has said.

Mr Ndlovu said the broader objective is to establish a wide range of fully equipped health centres countrywide.
For instance, he noted that a state-of-the-art laboratory has been set up at Bulawayo Medical Centre.

“The idea is that, throughout the country, we want to have those services as much as possible. More recently, at Bulawayo Medical Centre, we have set up a dental clinic and we have also built a new state-of-the-art lab and we are really excited about that,” he said.

“There are other projects in the pipeline and eventually we want to build a hospital in Bulawayo but we cannot disclose the specific budget and timeframe for the project at the moment.”

Early this year, Mr Ndlovu said this year, Cimas will spend US$7 million towards improving health service delivery and infrastructure in the country.
On membership, Mr Ndlovu said despite the country having a smaller percentage of the population covered in health insurance, health finance and medical aid, Cimas membership is at a ten-year high.

“Membership has been quite good and currently our membership is at a ten-year high, but it can be better,” he said.
He added that health surveys show that most of the formally employed people are covered by various health insurance schemes and focus should be on tapping into the informal sector.

“As an industry, we need to come up with health schemes that are affordable for people to access health services in both the public and private sector,” said Mr Ndlovu. — chronicle