عزاء البروفسير زاكي الدين أحمد حسين زاكي الدين بالنادي السوداني أبوظبي

Quote: In May 1975 I went to Japan on a scholarship offered by the Japan Internation Cooperation Agency (JICA) for two months. It offered very intensive training with lectures, endoscopy sessions and pathological counseling in GI problems. It was very stimulating to me and it made me realize two important facts. The first was that I need to establish a special centre dedicated to the study and management of Gastro-Intestinal disease. The second was that I needed somehow to obtain the support of Japan for this project. When I was back in the Sudan I kept pondering on how to establish the GI centre. The ministry of health was receptive but had no significant fund. However they made a very important commitment, they agree to have this centre built on the ground where Ibn Sina now stands. It is remarkable that this area had been designated for a hospital when Ammarat was first planned in 1959. The Ministry of Health held on to this piece of land for twenty years as an open space in spite of several attempts from other government agencies to acquire it for other purposes. Now armed with the promise of this prime piece of real estate I felt I had a huge bargaining chip. Soon I had the chance to play my strong hand. I was visited in my now very active endoscopy department by one of the directors of Esai Pharmaceutical company. Esai was also very influential in Japan. I knew this particular director, Mr. Mucai from previous visits to Sudan. He seemed impressed by the work we were doing and this encouraged me to tell him about my idea for the GI centre and my hope that Japan would be interested to help. I was happily surprised when he became really excited about the project. He advised me that the best was to enlist Japanese help was to involve the University of Okayama in japan. He went on to say that the way to involve Okayama was to write to them inviting them for sisterly cooperation with my department in KNTH. Seeing my apparent surprise he asked me to write a letter to the Dean of the medical school of Okayama University inviting him to accept this scientific union. He said he would take the letter himself and deliver it to the dean. He went on to explain that Okayama University was the main advisor to the Japanese government in its international medical aid. I was very excited and duly wrote the letter and gave it to Mr. Mucai. To my great happiness two months later the Dean of Okayama University came to Sudan. I was contacted by the Japanese Embassy of his visit. He came and visited us in Khartoum North and made a programme for him to meet the Dean of our Medical School and Vice Chancellor of the University. I explained to him my ambition of building a GI unit and showed him the area in Ammarat where it will be built. A few days later he went back apparently very supportive of the idea. I continued my contact with Mr. Mucai in his visits to Khartoum which happened regularly and he became very much dedicated to the project. He arranged for the Sudanese Ambassador in Japan to visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo to discuss the proposed GI centre in Khartoum. On my advice our Minister of Health also visited the Japanese Ambassador in Khartoum and told him that the project would be a great help to the Sudanese people. By 1981 I had the first feeling of a positive response from Japan. A group of three Japanese officials came to Khartoum. One from JICA, one from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and one form the Ministry of Health. I was asked to come and meet them at the Japanese Embassy in Khartoum. We had a cordial meeting but it was difficult to tell what conclusion they came to. However a few months later yet another group came and they looked more senior. We had a meeting with them at the Japanese Embassy and this was a lengthy meeting. They offered they would be prepared to recommend a small medical centre but not a hospital. I became very angry and said that I wanted a hospital and that I shall somehow with or without their help build it. They were not prepared for my outburst of temper and therefore after some silence they said that would I be able to run the hospital well if they should build it. In the same vein of anger I told them I shall run it and run it well. We adjourned the meeting and suggested that we meet the following day. The next day we had a short meeting and asked us to take them to visit the various medical facilities in Khartoum. So for the following four days we toured all the main hospitals in the three towns, Khartoum Hospital, Omdurman Hospital, Khartoum North Hospital, Soba Hospital and Ibrahim Malik Hospital. In each hospital we spent hours visiting wards, operating theatres, kitchens and bathrooms. They were taking notes and photographs and at the end of their visits I thought they had a bad impression. The night before they left I invited them to a big dinner party at my house in their honour. To impress them as much as possible I invited the minister of finance, Sayed Ibrahim Moniem, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health and the managing director of Kenana Sugar Company and several other dignitaries and doctors. I thought they were very impressed. When we said farewell I had a feeling that their body language was very positive and encouraging. Things then moved very fast and in a forward direction. In December 1982 I was invited to go to Tokyo and supervise the bidding for the contract to build the hospital. I was supported by a Japanese architectural firm appointed by the Japanese government. Seven firms produced bids and eventually Konike Company won the contract to build and equip the hospital. On Christmas day (December 25) 1982 at the offices of the Sudanese Embassy in Tokyo I signed the contract with the company. By mid march 1983 Konike started digging the foundation. They promised that in two years time they will finish. True to their word the building was completed in May 1985 and all furnishings and equipment were in place. I was then faced with the fulfillment of the Sudanese commitment, building the perimeter wall the inside roads and the garden. This turned out to be more hard work than we bargained for. Step one was to write the Ministry of Health and get their approval. Step two was to get the approval of the Ministry of Planning. Step three was to the approval of the Ministry of Health specifying the money necessary and step four you had to contact the Ministry of Finance to obtain the necessary funds. These steps were to be repeated for the perimeter wall the roads and the garden. The perimeter wall was the most demanding because I had to spend hours touring the three towns for a big building surrounded by such a wall. One afternoon I passed the Parliament building and was immediately impressed by it perimeter wall. The next day we sat with the architect and spent hours sketching and drawing until we came up with the present wall which I believe to be quite acceptable. I was fortunate that in dealing with the Ministries of Health, Planning and Finance I was dealing with people of my generation, people I met at Hantoub or the University and in various aspects of public life. I don’t remember having any difficulty in meeting any minister or senior civil servant or difficulty in obtaining approval for funds. However building by nature is a slow process and it was not until the end of 1985 that Ibn Sina reached the shape it is now in. While I was dealing with the physical construction I was also developing my ideas about the staffing and administrative sides. I am pleased to say that I introduced for the first time the following concepts: i- Nursing to be limited to the graduates of the Khartoum Nursing College ii- Food catering was to be on the basis of cooked individual meals designed and supervised by hospital dieticians iii- Cleaning the building should be by private contractors To achieve this and do it well I needed financial and administrative independence. Luckily the Minister of Health happened to be a surgeon, Mr. Suleiman Abu Saleh. It was tough to convince him but he agreed that Ibn Sina although part of the Min