‘Forsaken’ Kasama hospital cries for rehab

Thu, 22 Dec 2016 11:50:37 +0000

By BUUMBA CHIMBULU

 GOVERNMENT will this week have a meeting where challenges faced by Kasama General Hospital such as shortage of doctors and infrastructure will be addressed, Northern Province minister Brain Mundubile has said.

Mr Mundubile said the ministers invited to the meeting will also discuss ways of equipping the hospital with modern medical facilities and equipment.

He was responding to concerns by the hospital medical superintendent Dr Chishimba Kalandanya that there was shortage of human resource and equipment at one of the oldest health institutions in the country.

“The issue of Kasama General Hospital has been topical time and again; we have had calls and letters concerning this hospital. As ministers, we have agreed that this week we will have a meeting where we will address the immediate concerns.

‘‘These will involve the human resource aspect, equipment and other smaller issues,” Mr Mundubile said.

He also said Government would engage a consultant for a design review which would incorporate the old and new building at the hospital.

And Dr. Kalandanya complained that other than shortage of doctors, the hospital building had dangerous structural defects which needed urgent attention.

“The hospital has many structural defects; the pipes pass through the roof, so when there are leakages, we have to break the wall; so it has a lot of structural challenges,” Dr. Kalandanya said.

He said shortage of staff had resulted in the hospital failing to attend to patients adequately and appealed to Government to consider staffing the hospital whose catchment area was wide.

“At the moment, we only have two specialists but we need a minimum of four to cater for all the departments.

The hospital has a capacity of 450 beds with about 100 in-patients but currently only able to have 400 because of infrastructural challenges,” he said.

Dr. Kalandanya said the main Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was not properly equipped and that the hospital did not have an X-ray machine.

Dr Kaladanya, however, said the hospital was currently installing a scanner with support from the Government.

And Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, Ronald Chitotela, assured the hospital management that Government would upgrade the hospital to a modern one, especially that Kasama would soon be declared a city.