There's no hospital drugs shortage-MoH
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Sun 18 Dec. 2011, 13:57 CAT
THE Ministry of Health says no user fees are supposed to be charged for people receiving heathcare services at primary level. And the ministry's acting spokesperson Dr Maximillian Bweupe says there is no shortage of drugs in the country. In an interview on Thursday, Dr Bweupe explained that the guidance and policy directive was very clearly given by President Michael Sata when he opened Parliament.
During a tour of Ndola Central Hospital on Monday by Copperbelt Minister John Kafuna, the minister said it was unfortunate that patients continue paying to access medical services when the government had abolished user fees in hospitals.
But Ndola Central Hospital senior medical superintendent Dr Dande Malawo said the institution had continued charging user fees because it had not received a written memo from the Ministry of Health on abolition of user fees
But Dr Bweupe said following the directive from the President, this meant that preventive and curative services at primary healthcare level - from the health centers to the district levels - were all supposed to be free.
"And this had now been extended to urban areas because initially in about 2006, the user fees were waived for rural areas but this has been extended to all urban areas as well. So what this means is that for people who seek care at primary level, they are not supposed to be charged fees; these include registration fees, admission fees and even when these patients are referred to higher centers, it means that even there because they came in through that system at primary care, they are not supposed to be charged fees," he said.
He said finance minister Alexander Chikwanda reaffirmed this when he presented the budget.
Dr Bweupe said the permanent secretary Dr Peter Mwaba had written a memorandum to the Secretary to the Cabinet for him to provide guidance on the implementation.
He said Dr Mwaba also held a meeting with all the provincial medical officers a month ago.
"So the clear guidance is that the user fees have been removed. What is going to remain is what is called bypass fees; when you decide not to go through the primary health system and you refer yourself to a higher centre, for example, if you go directly to UTH without passing through the clinic and general hospital, it means you have bypassed the referral system and there is a fee which will be charged to you by the hospital. So bypass fees still remain and the high cost services will be attracting the normal high cost fees," he explained.
"So having said that even where we have the bypass fees remaining, emergency cases are still very much exempt from paying any fees."
On shortage of drugs in the hospitals, Dr Bweupe said looking at the weekly drug store and drug status and what was in the pipeline, there was currently no shortage of drugs.
He explained that UTH being a referral hospital only stocks highly specialised drugs.
He said UTH is not expected to stock ordinary drugs stocked at the lower level clinics.
He said according to the stock status that was normally supplied, the drugs were available in the local clinics.
"You will realise that in any normal logistic system, you might find some mal-distribution where one area over-requested or was over-supplied with one issue and it creates a temporary imbalance in another area. But when you look at what drugs and products are available in the country, they are what we need to have and our drug status is maintained at a very high level," said Dr Bweupe.
Labels: MICHAEL SATA, MINISTRY OF HEALTH, USER FEES
Read more...
COMMENT - All entrance exams should be abolished, and education should be universal again, which is what gave Zimbabwe the 92% literacy rate in the 1980s. It was the WB and IMF that insisted on user fees and other devices that bleed money from the middle and working class and ordinary businesses. This started under ESAP. So let's return to what works - universal healthcare and education. Paid for by the mining industry, which is only there to mine the resources that belong to the people of Zimbabwe to begin with. Mind you that it is the MDC that is the neoliberal, pro user fee party in government.
Govt should ban Form 1 entrance tests
Friday, 02 December 2011 00:00
Fortious Nhambura Features Writer
As cries over continued ripping off of parents and guardians seeking their children to write examination fees at the country's boarding and private secondary school grow, its high time Government moves to ban the examinations.
The Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture should now move to make sure secondary schools all first year secondary school entries are determined by Grade Seven public examination results and not local exams that are now being used to rip prospective students.
A decision to use only public examinations for entrance into Form 1 would ensure that pupils and guardians are not stripped off their hard-earned cash in the name of these numerous examinations.
Time and again the boarding schools have cashed in on the plight of students who are usually in short of time to secure places before the beginning of the first term in January. This has seen the growing need to attend entrance examination and payment of these high fees unavoidable.
Continued increases in the number of prospective students versus a near stagnant growth in mission and boarding number have pushed demand up, a situation that has been exploited by unscrupulous school authorities to milk parents of their hard earned cash.
Form 1 entrance examination fees have been rising and now range anything between US$30 and US$60 depending on the school. To this effect the education authorities have been forced to year in year out issue warnings against unjustified increase in entrance exam fees but to no avail.
The schools have continued defy the Government directives with impunity.
This has shown that warnings alone can not help in bringing order into the school enrollment systems but decisive action that include the action that include policy change examination policy change.
Parents and guardians feel that pitching exorbitant entrance test fees is being pushed by the need to fundraise than offer a service.
This they say is directly schools behind the jump to over US$50 per pupil from US$20 of form one entrance fees since August this year. Only last year most school were charging far less than US$20 per pupil but the cost continues to spiral despite that fact that nothing much has charged on the economic front.
The fees are being pushed by a scramble for form one places at boarding schools as most parents are seeking to secure vacancies before mid December.
It has taken long for schools to see sense that it does not make sense to continue to appeal for reason to take precedence in the country education system.
Parents and guardians are agreed that the responsible ministry should ensure Grade Seven examinations are taken earlier and that results are released in mid or late October to give schools enough time to enroll students and for parents to seek places for their children.
The ministry would then enact a law requiring all secondary school first year entries to be based on Grade Seven results with those flouting the policy prosecuted. This is the only way out if Government is going to bring sanity in form enrollment in the country. The system of using entrance examination is now archaic and breeds corruption that has now become the order of the day in most schools, and even at education offices, as parents seek to secure places at so called good schools for their children.
Analysts argue that the increase in such corrupt tendencies were a reflection of the rot that is the Ministry requiring urgent corrective attention.
To increase their earnings school authorities are cashing in on desperation of parents by inviting hundreds of pupils for interviews against limited places available.
The ministry has, however, not made the situation easy by holding examinations later in the year and Zimsec releasing outcomes in December.
The timetable has given school the reason to seek fill their enrollment through the entrance exams. Although entrance examinations have been used for sometime, the mercenary attitude among most school authorities requires a shift in policy.
It is critical to note that there is a general demand for places at boarding schools and that has not necessarily been driven by the search for better school results hence no justification for high fees.
Most of the schools are riding in yesteryear glory and no longer have facilities and results to match their name. As Government weighs the option of moving examination to August or early September, Government can set out amounts that can be charged as entrance fees and limit on the number of students a school can invite for the examinations.
As rightly put by Education Minister David Coltart, "Why does a school have to call 2 000 pupils for interviews yet they only have space for just 100?
While schools are justified in charging fees to cover administrative costs, the charges should be reasonable and not bent on milking prospective students when they are aware they can not cater for even half of the invited pupils.
Labels: EDUCATION, NEOLIBERALISM, SCHOOL FEES, USER FEES
Read more...
Cattle farmers in Mazabuka bemoan animal dipping fee
By Henry Chibulu in Mazabuka
Mon 08 Mar. 2010, 06:30 CAT
CATTLE farmers in Munjile ward in chief Hanjalika’s area in Mazabuka are reportedly refusing to dip their animals on grounds that the dipping fee is high.
The dipping fee has been pegged at K4,000.
The farmers also complained of the long distance to the nearest dip tank in Chitongo, about five kilometres from Munjile.
Ward councillor, Enock Hachiwa disclosed this during a pit latrines celebration and open defecation free zone public meeting organised by AFRICARE.
Hachiwa said farmers instead wanted to dip their animals using free facilities from the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries.
Hachiwa told Mazabuka mayor Shadreck Mwiinga and district administrative officer Harriet Kawina who represented district commissioner Tyson Hamaamba that animals had continued to die from livestock diseases because of the farmers’ negative attitude.
He said unless the cattle farmers changed their negative attitude, the cattle population would continue to be threatened in the area.
Hachiwa regretted that all the animals donated by World Vision Zambia and the Catholic Church under the restocking programme had died due to livestock diseases.
But Kawina told the meeting that the government was disappointed that farmers were failing to dip their animals on account that the K4,000 dipping fee were unaffordable.
She said there was need for the local leadership and the veterinary department to sensitise farmers on the need to take cattle farming as a business venture.
Kawina said the dipping of animals was not a responsibility of the government but farmers.
The meeting was also attended by Mazabuka town clerk Ekan Chingangu.
And some pupils in Munjile ward have stopped going to school for fear of being swept away by strong current in some streams that have become flooded due to heavy rains being experienced in the area.
According to a joint statement by 11 village headmen from chief Hanjalika, pupils in the affected areas stopped going to school about two weeks ago because Magoye river, Ngwezi and Kabolongola streams were flooded and posed a threat to people’s lives.
The headmen explained that pupils from Tundwe, Mapondo, Potela, Ngwezi and Kaumuzya settlements could not attend class at Chitongo, Kataba and Munjile basic schools.
They urged the government to come to the children’s rescue by constructing bridges to enable them to attend classes throughout the year.
The headmen also asked the government to prepare relief food for people in the area because of the anticipated poor harvest caused by the partial drought experienced.
The 11 village headmen are Hangoma, Hantuku, Hakasuba, Buumba, Malambo and Tundaile.
Others are Chitanda, Mweemba, Hachaba, Moya and Namausha.
Labels: CATTLE DISEASE, USER FEES
Read more...
Traders and Fishermen refuse to pay govt increased fees in Mpulungu
December 19, 2008
Fishing boats Mpulungu at HarborThere was a near riot at Ngwenya market in Mpulungu yesterday after marketeers and traders defied fisheries officers from the fisheries department who attempted to begin implementing the new fisheries act, which has seen revised fisheries license fees and charges. The government have increased the licence fees for all commercial fishermen to K5 000 000 per fishing boat per year from the K300 000 they paid last year.
Meanwhile fishermen and traders in Mpulungu have maintained that they will not be part and parcel of the new fish charges and fees which they are being asked to pay by the fisheries department because they are too high and abnormal.
Fisheries officers who raided Ngwenya market in an effort to start implementing the revised fisheries act were met with force until they called for police officers who also failed to change the fishermen’s stance.
Fisheries officers were forced to retreat to their offices after they failed to negotiate with the uncompromising fishermen.
The fishermen and traders later ganged up and descended on the office of district commissioner Willie Simfukwe and demanded to seek audience with him to sort out the issue.
Addressing the irate fishermen, district commissioner Willie Simfukwe said the fisheries act is a statutory instrument which has been passed into law by parliament and can only be revised if it is sent back to the national assembly.
Simfukwe said the act was earlier suspended by former agriculture and cooperatives minister Sara sayifwanda after complaints from fishermen in Mpulungu who stated that the new fees in the act were unmanageable.
He said even president Rupiah Banda confirmed the suspension at a public rally in Mpulungu during the election campaigns to pave way for consultations before its implementation.
Simfukwe however said the fisheries department has ignored theses pronouncements and have gone ahead to implement the act in Mpulungu. He appealed to government through the permanent secretary in the ministry of agriculture and cooperatives to urgently address the issue saying it is painting a bad picture on government.
Simfukwe said the implementing of the act is a sensitive issue which can easily ignite chaos from the people in the area because most of them depend on fishing for their livelihood.
He however appealed to fishermen to be calm as the issue is being sorted out and warned the fishermen and traders against taking the law into their own hands.
But the irate traders and fishermen said they will not compromise with the fisheries department and pay the new fees because the fees are too high.
In an interview later, Ngwenya market committee chairman Webby Sichilima said it will be difficult to guarantee the safety of fisheries officers who will be sent to implement the act at the market because traders and fishermen at Ngwenya market are agitated.
Sichilima warned that the mood at Ngwenya market is currently tense and appealed to the relevant authorities to urgently find a lasting solution to the matter.
And some fisheries officers involved in revenue collection have voiced their concerns on the matter saying their work has become extremely difficult to carry out.
The officers who sort anonymity for fear of reprimand said they are no longer free to collect revenue from fish and kapenta on behalf of the government of the republic of Zambia because of the oppositions and threats they are encountering from the traders.
They complained that some traders are asking them to build their own markets and collect revenue from there because Ngwenya market belongs to the walamo committee under the senior chief Tafuna of the Lungu people of Mpulungu.
Last month, during a meeting held at the fisheries training centre in Mpulungu, fishermen and traders booed and jeered at fisheries officers who had traveled from Kasama to address them.
The meeting which was attended by over 60 fishermen, local councilors, marketers and traders and government officials from the fisheries department had to be cut short without reaching an agreement after some fishermen walked out and demanded to have an audience with the new agriculture and cooperatives minister and the director of fisheries claiming the officers from Kasama were too junior to address their plight.
Outlining the new fees then, principal fisheries technician john Mtonga told the fishermen that government had approved a new statutory instrument where fishing license fees and other charges have been revised.
Mtonga told the gathering that starting 16th may, 2008, all commercial fishermen in Mpulungu will be required to pay K5 000 000 per fishing boat per year from the K300 000 they paid last year.
In nsumbu, commercial fishermen will be charged K2, 499 000m per boat per year, an increment from the K300 000 per boat last year.
According to the revised fees, license fee for ring net boats have been apt from K100 000 to K1, 980 000 per boat per year.
Mtonga who told the fishermen that he was only carrying out his duty said people in the ornamental fishing business will be required to part away with K5 000 000m to obtain a license an increment from the K300 000 they spent to get one last year.
He said each ornamental fish caught from Lake Tanganyika for export to other countries will now cost K900 from K20.
For small fishing boats owned by peasant fishermen, the K11 000 they used to pay per boat every year has now been hiked to K99 800.
Mtonga said people using angling (Indobo), will now be charged K19 800 per month from K2000 last year.
He pointed out that the above fees among other charges took effect on 16th May, 2008, saying his job in Mpulungu was only to collect views and complaints which he was going to forward to the ministry in Lusaka for possible action.
But the angry fishermen, some talking on top of their voices, complained that the revised fees were too high and unjustified.
MPULUNGU 18/12/08/ZANIS.
Categories: Headlines Print This Post
Tags:
Labels: USER FEES
Read more...
Waived off Users Fees Triggers Increased Patients
Posted on June 4th, 2008
A recent draft report on user fees has revealed that the waiving off of user fees in Government health institutions has resulted in the immediate increase of patients seeking health services from Public health centres and institutions. And the report has further disclosed that the move has also triggered drug shortages in most Government health centres.
Speaking in Lusaka today, Civil Society for Poverty Reduction Senior Consultant Dr John Milimo said the increased number of people visiting health centres has resulted into work overloads on the part of the health personnel whose numbers had remained stagnant.
Dr Milimo noted that the abolition of user fees has further resulted into loss of the main financial resource in Government institutions. He added that there had also been loss of staff such as cleaners and security guards.
Meanwhile, Dr Milimo has urged Government to put in place extra remedial measures aimed at attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on health.
Dr Milimo said the attainment of the MDGs on health would not be realised because of the so many health requirements that needed to be worked on by Government and other stakeholders in an effort to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
He cited the adequate supply of drugs to respond effectively to increased demand on public health services, increased staffing levels at resource health centres to enable the health personnel attend to the skyrocketed population seeking health services as some of the necessary requirements needed for the realisation of the MDGs.
Others measures, Dr Milimo cited include the provision of an adequate budget to heath institutions, provision of transport such as ambulances to cater for patients who travel long distances.
Labels: HEALTHCARE, IMF, JOHN MILIMO, NEOLIBERALISM, USER FEES
Read more...
