Maravi

Health care is not a priority to Rupiah and govt - HH

Health care is not a priority to Rupiah and govt - HH
By Salim Dawood and Agness Changala
Mon 06 Sep. 2010, 15:30 CAT

UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema has said there will never be proper healthcare delivery service in Zambia for as long as President Rupiah Banda and his team remain in government. And Zambia Council for Social Development (ZCSD) has said the conditions at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) are pathetic and inhumane.

Hichilema said he was not surprised that the situation was degenerating at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) because that was the general picture in all public health institutions around the country.

The UPND leader was commenting on the revelation by The Post that patients were forced to sleep in corridors due to congestion at UTH.

“It’s time that the people of Zambia realised that the health delivery system is nearing total collapse in our country. It’s extremely poor, it is a health delivery system where basic facilities are not there with regards to beddings let alone medicines,” he said.

“Am not surprised that situation is degenerating at UTH because that is what is obtaining in many hospitals, a few days ago people were sleeping on the floor. You go to Kanyama Clinic there, just go and have a look at what is obtaining there.”

Hichilema said the rainy season was nearing and the Kanyama Clinic was prone to floods and yet nothing had been done to avert the floods at the health institution.

He said if government had really been concerned about the plight of the people of Zambia, the health delivery system would have been more efficient.
“Yet they are shouting at donors , the donors who provide 50 per cent of the health budget in our country.

Telling donors to pack and go, he is telling the donors to pack their bags and go, he’s telling them not to poke their noses in the business of Zambia. We do need our international friends for health service delivery,” he said.

He said the mobile hospitals were just a way of using government resources by the MMD to conduct its political campaigns.

Hichilema said the mobile hospitals wre not meant to serve people diligently because the US $ 53 million dollars that is being spent in the acquisition of mobile hospitals could have been used to improve on the already existing structures.

“Between you and I, US $53 million dollars is about a staggering K255 billion, why would you go and spend so much money to buy motor vehicles when you are not able to buy beds, blankets and medicines, what is the priority for UTH and other clinics in the country,” Hichilema asked.

“Look at the state of the roads, which roads will the mobile hospitals drive on from Lusaka to Shang’ombo. Once the new vehicle leaves for Shang’ombo it will break down along the way so where is the rationale of spending K 255 billion. It’s not about public health delivery, it’s about politics and political mileage.”

Hichilema said he wondered when Zambians would start feeling the pain of the fellow citizens and relatives who were not receiving proper health service and say it was enough.

“But unfortunately, for as long as the MMD remains in power, for as long as President Rupiah Banda and his team remain in place, this is what will be obtaining.

The situation is worsening, so Zambians must make a decision, I think enough is enough. We need a change of government, fresh breath of air and leave the squalor inflicted by the poor leadership which is insufficient to serve the 12 million Zambians,” said Hichilema.

And ZCSD executive director Reverend Matyola Malawo said he physically saw the status of the hospital when he visited his sick colleague recently.

“I saw it personally when I went to see one of our colleagues and I can say the situation is quite pathetic and inhumane,” he said.

Rev Malawo said what was happening at the hospital was an indication that the government lacked priorities as far as expenditure is concerned.
He said the health sector was critical and should not be compromised because it dealt with people’s lives.

Rev Malawo expressed worry that despite the situation being bad, there was no hope that someone was addressing it.

He said the government must tell the Zambian people what it was doing about the situation because it had now worsened.

Rev Malawo said the situation may worsen the condition of the patients who were not even very sick.

He appealed to health minister Kapembwa Simbao to treat the health sector as a priority.

“Even if President Rupiah Banda is on record saying there are drugs in health centres, people are being given prescriptions all over the country,” Rev Malawo said.

He said the situation at UTH was a source of concern and something must be done about it immediately.

Rev Malawo further urged UTH management to speed up the completion of projects on infrastructure expansion so as to decongest it.
Congestion at UTH has continued to be a problem, with patients in some wards sleeping on the floor.

An on-the-spot check at the Filter Clinic and D block ward on Saturday revealed that patients were subjected to sleeping on the floor in the wards and the corridors in some cases.

Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, HEALTHCARE, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 4:47 PM