Community initiative sees delays in completion of 650 health posts

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 11:09:59 +0000

By KALOBWE BWALYA

GOVERNMENT must expedite the construction of the 650 health posts to boost quality healthcare service delivery to the people, says Community Initiative for Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria (CITAM-plus).

CITAMplus policy and advocacy officer Nathan Nhlane said there were very few health facilities in the country and in some places these were non-existent which made patients cover long distances to access health care.

He said the late President Micheal Sata promised to construct 650 health post across the county, but to date a few the health posts are yet to be completed, hence the demand for the completion of all the remaining ones.

CITAMPLUS is an advocacy organization involved in quality healthcare services for people living with HIV.

Mr Nhlane said despite his organisation having written several letters to the Government through the Ministry of Health, no convincing answer had been given over the delayed completion of the health facilities.

Meanwhile, Mr Nhlane said it was sad to note that Tuberculosis (TB) has remained the major cause of death world over which had killed many people than any other infectious disease in human history.

He said the Barcelona Declaration formulated in 2014 as a foundation document of the global TB Caucus was open to all political representatives in the world to sign as a demonstration of support and solidity to ending the TB epidemic.

This was designed to raise the profile on ending the disease using the influence of politicians.

“We are happy to see our local lawmakers taking part in the fight against TB. And a lot has been done for Zambia.

He said the signing of the declaration by the parliamentarians has shown the commitment to fight the epidemic and hoping that the fight will be won.