Health services in remote areas may come to a standstill, says Simbao

Health services in remote areas may come to a standstill, says Simbao
Written by Mutale Kapekele
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:39:29 PM

Health minister Kapembwa Simbao has said health services in remote areas may come to a standstill due to the withdrawal of funds to the Ministry of Health by donors.
Simbao said it was sad that the mistakes of a few individuals would have an adverse impact on the health of those in remote places.

“Most of the money that has been withdrawn was used to fund health activities in rural areas,” Simbao said when he appeared on ZNBC's Culture Remodelling programme on Sunday night.

“This means that programmes in those remote areas may come to a standstill because the government will not be able to come up with the amounts needed to continue those programmes. It is very sad that the rural poor are being punished for the mistakes of a few individuals.”

Simbao said the government was disappointed that some of the people who were trusted were involved in the defrauding the government.

“It is so disappointing that the very people you trust are the ones who let you down,” Simbao said. “What is even more disappointing is that they used laid down procedures to do bad things. There was no blacking in procedure. Everything was followed but somehow they connived and used the legal procedure to do what they did. These people have put us in a weak position that I can only appeal to the cooperating partners to rethink their position while we deal with the issue. ”

Simbao said fraud happened everywhere in the world and that the donors should think about those who would be affected by their withdrawal of funds.

Simbao also said the government was worried about the dispensing of medicines in health institutions.

He complained that he did not understand how drugs could run out when Medical Stores had most of them in stock. He said the problem was partly due to unqualified personnel engaged to dispense drugs.