Ondjiva - The minister of Health, Sílvia Lutucuta, informed this Monday that the new General Hospital of Ondjiva, in southern Cunene Province, to be opened shortly, will have the services of Namibian physicians, in order to reduce the number of Angolan patients seeking treatment in this neighboring country.
Speaking to the press, at the end of a short working visit to Cunene, the minister said that the strategy adopted by the Ministry of Health will provide financial relief to Angolans who travel to the Republic of Namibia for medical treatment.
“With the opening of the Ondjiva General Hospital, many of these patients from different parts of the country will come to Cunene, because they will meet their Namibian doctors, just as we will have patients from this neighboring country being treated in Angola, being an experience of internationalization of specialized services health”, she highlighted.
She highlighted that the new Ondjiva General Hospital is equipped with highly complex technology, such as CT scans, orthopantomography, mammography, ultrasounds, x-rays, among others.
Regarding the staff, she said that the health unit will have around a thousand professionals, of which more than 800 are part of the additional quota that benefit from accelerated training to guarantee the provision of a humanized service and the correct use of equipment.
“All conditions have been safeguarded for the inauguration of the hospital unit, and final arrangements are currently being made to place some equipment”, she added.
For her part, the governor of Cunene, Gerdina Didalelwa, said that the infrastructure represents a great gain for the people of the province, who will have a new hospital with several facilities at their disposal.
“It is a feeling of gratitude to the Executive, who decided to build a tertiary level health unit, with all the latest technology, incomparable to the old hospital”, she highlighted.
The new Ondjiva General Hospital will have four inpatient units, an equal number of surgeries rooms, a blood bank, psychiatric inpatient care and eight residences for doctors.
The new health unit will provide services such as pediatrics, obstetrics, endoscopy, biology, ophthalmology, stomatology, emergency care, minor surgeries, X-ray, CT scan and psychiatry.
The HGO will replace the old General Hospital, which was affected in October 2020 by a fire that completely damaged the surgery area and the oxygen storage station.
After the fire, services were transferred to the Cuanhama Municipal Hospital, with a capacity for 70 beds, located in the Ekuma neighborhood, around Ondjiva.
FI/LHE/MCN/CF/jmc
