Jimma University Hospital to Produce Oxygen, Vacuum

Jimma University Specialised Hospital’s (JUSH) oxygen and vacuum producing plant, part of the half billion Birr expansion, will begin service by September 2014.

The Hospital has been under renovation activities, including the construction of new buildings, at the cost of 230 million Br, and the acquisition and installation of several new equipments.

Jimma University has paid a total of around 270 million Br, at current exchange rate, for the purchase and instalment of medical equipments  and machines including anaesthesia machine, cardiology equipments, sterilisation machine and the oxygen plant, which is the third plant in the country.

In addition to the new building and these machines, modern medical services, such as CT scan, MRI, Cat lab, Gama Camera for nuclear medicine, digital x-ray and a water reservoir tanker with a capacity of 3,000 cubic meters are among the new services due to the renovation of the hospital. The equipment were supplied and installed by Care Life, a Chinese company, and General Electric (GE), an American company, in partnership with their local partners Fortune Plc and Boston Medical Equipments, respectively.

The oxygen plant, supplied and installed by Altay Scientific Company, an Italian company, produces 100 cubic metres an hour with purity level of 95pc, according to Fekadu Assefa (MD), chief executive officer (CEO)of the Hospital.

The fund for the renovation of the hospital and the purchase of the equipments, including the oxygen plant, is secured from the Ministry of Finance & Economic Development (MoFED), Fekadu said. The construction of buildings, located within the compound of the University, was undertaken by Gansu Construction Co., Ltd, a Chinese contractor, and Rama Construction, a local company.

The oxygen plant will help the hospital save a million Birr annual oxygen expense and generate more revenue by supplying to the market, according to Fekadu.

Established in 1937, during the Italian occupation, to provide medical services for Italian soldiers, the JUSH is one of the oldest hospitals in the country. After Italy withdrew from the country, it has been running as public hospital under the Ministry of Health (MoH) under different names at different times. At first, it was called Ras Desta Damtew Hospital after the name of an Ethiopian patriot during Italian occupation and renamed latter as Jimma Hospital during the Dergue regime, gradually growing to Jimma University Specialised Hospital after the transfer of its ownership from the regional health bureau of Oromia to Jimma University under the Ministry of Education (MoE).

Currently, it is the only teaching and referral hospital in the south western part of the country, operating with annual budget exceeding 24 million Br since 2010/11. It provides specialised health services through its nine medical and other clinical and diagnostic departments for approximately 9,000 inpatients and 80,000 outpatients each year with bed capacity of 600 including hotel standard single bed rooms.

The hospital is managed by a CEO accountable to a governing board composed of Business & Development vice president of the University, dean of the College of Health Science, Jimma Zonal Administrator, the Zone’s Health Department head, a community representative, the CEO, the clinical director and the hospital’s Employees’ Representative.


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