While attending a Zimbabwe Midwifery and Nursing Association UK (ZiMNA UK) event, I met with Jabulani Chikore, Mental Health Lead Nurse at University College and Vice Chair for ZiMNA UK, Jesca Gudza, Project Development Nurse South London Partnership and Chair for ZiMNA UK, and Lucia Vambe, Chair for the Zimbabwe Life Project (ZLP). Together, we discussed the idea of helping a hospital in Zimbabwe. ZiMNA UK is an international nurses association which works in partnership with NHS England to provide support to Zimbabwean nurses, midwives and care assistants working in the UK.

I had just joined the New Hospital Programme team at our Trust. The team was working on the closure of our Abraham Cowley Unit in Chertsey and the new hospital that is being built to replace it in Spring 2024.  I knew it was likely that  there would be equipment that couldn’t be reused in the new hospital.

I spoke to Emma Bilson (Programme Director for the New Hospitals Programme), and after meeting with ZiMNA UK representatives, our Trust Programme Board approved the  proposal. The proposal was that where possible the ACU equipment would be repurposed around our Trust’s sites in line with our sustainability agenda and that any remaining equipment would be donated to ZiMNA UK.

ZiMNA UK chose to donate the equipment to Ngomahuru Hospital, in the Masvingo Province of Zimbabwe. The facility provides mental health care, so it was the perfect choice.

Ngomahuru Hospital was established in the early 1920s as a jail for prisoners of war. It later became a quarantine centre for people with leprosy and eventually became, and remains, a mental health hospital.

What we originally thought would be two 40ft containers eventually became six, as we worked to squeeze in as much furniture as possible from the ACU site into every nook and cranny. The moral of this part of the story is don’t trust a nurse to estimate how many containers are required to empty a hospital! With the support of Vinci Facilities and our Trust’s Facilities team, the containers were filled with furniture including beds, mattresses, chairs, tables, and desks. The containers were then shipped to Ngomahuru Hospital to start a new lease of life.

When the containers arrived at Ngomahuru, Emma Bilson and I were invited by ZiMNA to present the donation to the hospital on behalf of our Trust. It was a moment filled with pride, excitement, and joy.

We visited Ngomahuru Hospital to meet the administrative and hospital team. We also met Caroline, whose son was admitted to Ngomahuru due to a drug-related illness. She expressed her gratitude for the donation, saying: “this furniture has changed people’s lives and makes them feel valued."

We also met some people staying on the Acute Admission Ward. There was an overwhelming sense of gratitude from everyone we met at the hospital, and we saw first-hand the difference that the donated furniture made to inpatients at Ngomahuru. The unit was built to support 60 people, but there were 90 in the unit (50 per cent over capacity), meaning that some people were sleeping on floors. People staying on the ward spoke of their joy at having amenities such as beds and mattresses, sofas, and dining room tables to eat their meals at. The TVs and numerous DVDs provided a source of entertainment. The washing machines meant they could have fresh clean clothes. I spoke to one person who said that a few weeks earlier he was bitten by bugs during the night, but now was able to enjoy a full night’s sleep. He believed that this would improve his recovery journey. 

Staff told us that they now had furniture for offices which previously had little or none which helps them do their jobs better. We also spoke to student nurses who said that the additional equipment  had made them rethink their career pathway, and they wanted to come back and support people with mental ill health.

Our donation to Ngomahuru Hospital is a start, but by no means the end of the support the hospital needs. The buildings are in a state of disrepair, and staff and inpatients told us about the challenges they face because of a lack of regular running water and regular electricity.

It was an emotional, humbling and proud moment for me to be part of this project that has changed the lives of people being treated and supported at the hospital and the staff who work there. I would like to thank the New Hospitals Programme team, the Programme Board and everyone who has made this possible.

Interesting stats:

  • It would require 480m2  of space to store the equipment over the two-year rebuild period.
  • By donating and reusing the equipment, we avoided 348 cubic metres of mixed recycling from going into landfill