Sat, 06 May 2017 13:41:44 +0000
By SIMON MUNTEMBA
GOVERNMENT has commissioned a K1million Kanyama Clinic Maternity wing funded by the European Union and the Zambian government under the Millennium Development Goal Initiative (MDGI) aimed at accelerating the reduction of Mother new born baby and child deaths.
Officiating the commissioning, Minister of health Chitalu Chilufya said this was a demonstration that the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) was committed to bring health services to the people’s door steps.
“This is yet another demonstration of the PF government’s commitment to bringing health services as close to the communities as possible”, he said.
Dr Chilufya added that government has upgraded five health centres in Lusaka.
“As you may be aware, the government with its cooperating partners has been upgrading five (5) health centres into level 1 hospital and so far Chipata, Matero ref and Chilenje health facilities have been upgraded into level 1 hospitals and they are operating as such”, he said.
He stated that the concept of city health especially for Lusaka district was envisioned that once all the first level hospitals were operational, the number of referrals would reduce, resulting in decongestion of UTH and Levy Mwanawasa general hospital.
Dr Chilufya further said that only cases that require specialized health care would be referred to higher levels of care and the principle of the continuum of care would be enhanced.
He urged all mothers in the community to make use of the commissioned facility.
The Minister pointed out that government had continued to address the shortage of health personnel at all levels of care.
“Given the various needs at different levels of care, the government had prioritized funding for critical position ranging from medical doctors, nurses and midwives” he said.
He disclosed that in the just ended recruitment phase for health personnel, a total of 347 health personnel were deployed to Lusaka district and they are already carrying out their duties.
Dr Chilufya stated that his Ministry was aiming at having a nurse as the minimum cadre at the health post. The health Minister said 40 competent and skilled staff among them,1 surgeon, 1 obstetrician, 2 anesthetist and 3 theatre nurses has already been allocated to Kanyama.
He said the facility had also been supported with over k72, 000 operational funds to undertake activities in maternal neo natal and child health as well as capacity building through various targeted programmes.
Dr Chilufya disclosed that the surgical procedures were now being undertaken at Kanyama first level hospital.
He said just this year, 74 general surgeries and 39 obstetrics and gynaecology surgeries have been conducted. He however appealed to the public to utilize the services that had been brought to their door steps and also develop the confidence that the services being offered at the facility were of quality and met the standards.
