Mpilo Central Hospital is in the process of beefing up its security in response to a spate of thefts at the institution as well as to curb motorists who take advantage of the lax security to park their vehicles overnight for free.
The hospital’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Leonard Mabandi claimed that people often parked their vehicles at the institution usually during football matches played at Barbourfields Stadium.
Dr Mabandi made these claims while briefing Health and Child Care Minister, Dr Obadiah Moyo about a number of issues affecting the hospital.
“Whenever there are soccer matches at Barbourfileds, people come and park their cars here, others even do so at night,” he said, of which the minister added that it was a possibility that other people even slept at the institution.
“…and that poses as a security concern especially for a public health institution,” reflected the minister.
However, the Mpilo CEO highlighted that the institution’s security personnel did conduct their duties with due diligence.
“Our security services constitute a small number but they are alert. They have managed to catch people with various items such as tablets. But one incident which amazed me was when one person was caught by security walking out carrying a machine to check Blood Pressure (BP),” Dr Mabandi said.
The CEO added that the institution was in the process of erecting a three-kilometre perimeter wall as part of efforts to improve security.
He noted these measures were necessary, as people walked into the hospital using any direction, a move which was hard to control since Mpilo was a public institution that had to be open and accessible.
“At the moment, people walk through, in any direction and you can’t really ask them why they used that direction. This is so because a section of the hospital is not fenced and we have to put a perimeter wall,” Dr Mabandi said.
In 2014, the Bulawayo Residents Association (BURA) embarked on a project to raise funds to construct a perimeter wall at the hospital.
However, the funds raised only managed to cover about 100 metres of the perimeter wall.
