CUT courts partners for new medical school

BY JAMES MUONWA
Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) will soon roll out degree
programmes in medicine and biotechnology following consummation of a
tripartite partnership with Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital and the
African Institute for Biomedical Sciences and Technology (AiBST).
The envisaged medical school will become the third in the country
after those at the University of Zimbabwe and National University of
Technology that train doctors, pharmacists and laboratory scientists,
among other disciplines.
Speaking after the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding
held at CUT on Tuesday, Vice Chancellor Professor David Simbi said the
penning of the tripartite agreement lay the rudimentary architecture
for the setting up of a fully-fledged School of Health Sciences and
Technology.
"Those who started the hospital yearned to make it a training hospital
and this was rekindled when the university was opened.
"There were sceptics who said there were enough doctors but we felt
otherwise. Our niche, steeped in medicine and health sciences, will be
to have educational architecture that develops a doctor who does not
only prescribe medicines but makes medicines supported by technology,"
said Simbi.
He said there was frenzied anxiety to see the project to fruition.
Chinhoyi hospital medical superintendent, Collet Mawire said his
institution's vision is to be the centre of excellence in health care
and technology that produces unique health professionals.
"Technology is the in-thing, therefore, we want to produce unique
cadres with unique features who will make a difference in terms of
health services," said Mawire.
He lamented the huge skills gap for bio-technologists and laboratory
scientists in local health centres.
AiBST chief scientific officer, Collen Masimirembwa said the field of
medicine had become stagnant and required a transformative paradigm to
churn out a new breed of medical professionals.
Masimirembwa underscored the need for teamwork among the tripartite
partners in the long and arduous journey towards the successful launch
of the envisaged medical school.
The event also saw the first cohort of eleven graduands receiving
post-graduate certificates in biomedical laboratory
technologies.-EDUCATION.