Kufuna calls for transfer of ‘uncaring' Petauke hospital staff

Kufuna calls for transfer of ‘uncaring' Petauke hospital staff
By Roy Habaalu in Petauke
Sat 18 Feb. 2012, 11:59 CAT

LABOUR deputy minister John Kufuna says health personnel at Petauke District Hospital must be transferred for their bad attitude towards patients.

During an impromptu visit to the hospital after he was informed that a male patient had been lying on a bench for 30 minutes unattended to in the evening Kufuna who was accompanied by Kawambwa member of parliament Lackson Chilangwa said staff at the institution was making government work difficult.

The deputy minister ordered a nurse found on duty to attend to the patient.

"It looks like you are not doing your job. Where is the clinical officer? Even the clinical officer is not here! We didn't find him, what's wrong with you nurses? Maybe you want to be sent somewhere else ba nurse!" Kufuna told the nurse who later run away.

"Where is the clinical officer? You are the clinical officer. Why can't you attend to the patient? What happens here? You operate from your homes, you don't operate from your offices, you are not working on shifts! Who is supposed to be here? You are being irresponsible. There is supposed to be a clinical officer and a nurse to attend to emergencies. Now a patient comes you just let him lie on the bench, is it normal?" Kufuna told a clinical officer who responded that he was not answerable to him.

Kufuna said the staff was reluctant to attend to patients because there were villagers who did not understand their right to health.

"You don't care, you are the people who are letting us down, you are letting the Zambians down, it's not fair. And where is the nurse who was here?" asked Kufuna.

The unidentified clinical officer who arrived 40 minutes later said, "I know how I operate as well, sir. You can't be questioning me."

But Kufuna told him to stop wasting his time and take the patient and attend to him.

Chilangwa said the situation was unacceptable.

"These people have an 'I-don't'care' attitude. For them it is business as usual. It's unacceptable that we find a person hit by a stone lying for 30 minutes. Suppose we (members of parliament and ministers) were not here? And this clinical officer is taking things so casually, laughing it off as if it's not his business! He says 'it's not me who was on duty, I just past through here'! Can you believe a hospital like this! The nurse we found didn't have the number for the doctor on call. What kind of operation is this? What kind of recklessness is that?" wondered Chilangwa.

"We can't accept this kind of nonsense, this is unacceptable and must come to an end. They don't give a damn to people from villages. The Minister of Health should take appropriate action after we give him a full report. This is the neglect MMD took this country to, it's unacceptable," Chilangwa said in an interview at the hospital.