RDAZ urges local funding of health sector

RDAZ urges local funding of health sector
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Sun 03 Jan. 2010, 04:00 CAT

RESIDENT Doctors Association of Zambia (RDAZ) president Dr Crispin Moyo has said some effects of the recent withdrawal of funding by lead donors to the Ministry of Health will be felt in the future.

And Dr Moyo said there was need to start thinking and putting in place measures to ensure that the budget for the health sector is locally funded. In an interview, Dr Moyo said 2009 had both positive and negative aspects in relation to the health sector.

He said on a positive note, health workers managed to reduce maternal mortality and infant mortality rates despite working under difficult conditions.
However, Dr Moyo said the negative part was the withdrawal of funding to the health sector by major donors.

He said this had a lot of ripple effects as service delivery was affected because grants were scaled down or delayed.
Dr Moyo said the withdrawal of funding affected most district hospitals in the country.

The donors have however resumed funding to the Ministry of Health after several meetings with the government on possibilities of having the misappropriated money replaced.
On infrastructure development, Dr Moyo said there was a drawback because of the withdrawal of funding.

“In-service training was adversely affected as there was a drop in the number of health workers to be trained by the government. The effects of this will not be seen now but in the future when we start complaining about lack of specialists in various fields. We are told that next year, the government will not sponsor any in-service training. This will be difficult for health workers who have already been accepted to go because they will not have support from the government,” he said.

He said even if the hospitals had the equipment, there were no specialists in all the fields.
Dr Moyo said there was need to start thinking of how the budget for the health sector should be locally funded.

“This means the government getting its own resources instead of depending on donors. We need to improve on accountability on how to handle public resources and those charged looking after the treasury because the people that are worse affected are the people at the grassroots,” he said.

Dr Moyo said they had also exhausted discussions on improved conditions of service with the government and left it to the unions to conclude. He hoped the negotiations would be fruitful. Dr Moyo said there was still a shortage of doctors in the public sector which currently stood at about 800.

He said Zambia needed about 1,800 doctors and managed to send some Zambian doctor in all the districts of the country. Dr Moyo said more Zambian doctors would soon be sent to operate in rural areas.