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Govt not showing leadership in management of health sector - NGOCC

Govt not showing leadership in management of health sector - NGOCC
By Kombe Chimpinde
Thu 09 Sep. 2010, 14:00 CAT

NON- Governmental Organisation’s Coordinating Committee (NGOCC) has charged that access to good health facilities in Zambia had become only for those especially in government that could afford to fly out of the country.

And NGOCC has charged that government is not showing leadership towards the management of the country's health sector judging by the dilapidated state of the country's biggest health institution the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and other local health centers.

Reacting to a story published in the Post showing patients sleeping on the floor and in corridors due to congestion, NGOCC executive director Engwase Mwale said that it was evident that Zambia needs more than just mobile hospitals in order to improve the health sector that government had insisted on.

“ NGOCC is on record as having indicated that the mobile hospitals are not the best solution for now for our country, because what we need is the availability of medical equipment, the availability of drugs and other accessories,” she said.

Mwale said that it was common that the already established health centres did not have adequate medical facilities and equipment.

“ It’s also regrettable that when the provision of good health service should be increased, government is busy providing mobile health services at a very high cost when the country can’t even service the existing health services facilities. It is a common fact that when people go to the local hospitals they are referred to the UTH because medical facilitates and equipment are simply not adequate in their areas,” she said.

“When you read the papers you see that in some maternity wards women are still been requested to carry buckets when going to deliver and various other accessories like gloves. And even drugs like pain killers are not available. We know that local centres do not even have tetanus drugs, these are essential drugs that must really be made available. So it is really unfair that UTH should be putting blame on the patients that find themselves at UTH that they must first seek treatment at the local health centers.”

Mwale further noted that it was very evident that not much is being done for the health sector and a lot still needed to be done to help improve the situation by the government.

“Such kind of misplaced priorities like what we are seeing now with the focus being placed on mobile hospitals. We find it even shocking from the media that female and male patients are sharing wards. In Zambia now It looks like access to health facilities is only for a few that can afford to fly out of the country,” she observed.

Mwale has since demanded that government puts into perspective the problems emanating in the health sector as they prepare the 2011 budget.

“As NGOCC we also urging government to show leadership in trying to focus on the issue of the UTH which is Zambia's biggest hospital. This will mean improvement of service delivery in existing local health centres which must be a priority. We know that currently the government is preparing the budget for 2011. I think we need to see that the 2011 budget should address the many challenges in the health sector,” said Mwale.

She has also challenged the Minister of Health Kapembwa Simbao to rise up to the occasion and urgently address the problems that are being faced at UTH and the entire health sector.

Labels: HEALTHCARE, NGOCC

posted by MrK @ 4:21 AM