Signing Ceremony for the Project for the Improvement of X-ray Equipment of Mtendere Mission Hospital in Chirundu District, Lusaka Province under Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects
2019/3/19
On 6th March 2019, Mr. Hidenobu Sobashima, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Zambia, and Dr. Erminia Ferrario, Hospital Director of Mtendere Mission Hospital, signed a grant contract amounting to up to 137,375 US Dollars for implementing a project of the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects “the Improvement of X-ray Equipment of Mtendere Mission Hospital in Chirundu District, Lusaka Province”.
Since Mtendere Mission Hospital was established in 1964, the hospital has been providing various medical services for patients including those outside Chirundu. It conducted a total of 5,317 X-ray examinations in 2017. However, as the hospital uses an old analogue type X-ray equipment, the images produced are not as clear as those by the latest one, and the patients have to wait for a long time. There are also problems about the disposal of the big films and liquids for development of the images.
Under the circumstances, the hospital prepared a plan to procure new digital X-ray equipment and requested the Government of Japan to fund the plan.
In this project, the new X-ray equipment will be procured from a Japanese company, FUJI FILM Corporation, and FUJI FILM South Africa offers to send its engineers to train the hospital staff for the equipment installation and maintenance free of charge, as part of its CSR activities.
With the new X-ray equipment, the hospital will be able to conduct X-ray examinations with clearer images, and the time which the patients wait for them will decrease. In addition, the problems of burden to the environment from the old X-ray equipment will disappear.
To read the speech made by Mr. Hidenobu Sobashima, Ambassador of Japan to Zambia at this ceremony, please click here.