Thu, 22 Jun 2017 08:57:53 +0000
By ANDREW MUKOMA
LIVINGSTONE Central Hospital staff have been commended for their continued efforts in providing quality health care not only to the people in Southern Province but neighboring countries as well.
Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya said that since the upgrading of the hospital from a general to a central the institution had provided various medical services that were not being offered before.
Dr. Chilufya said that currently, Livingstone Central Hospital has the senior most health personnel in all the medical departments in the country.
Speaking when toured the hospital yesterday, Dr. Chilufya said that Zambia has a limited number of health specialists and that there was need to invest more in the human resource.
“Zambia has very limited number of specialists both for public health and clinical care and it is important that we embark on a robust programme to increase the number of specialists to provide services,
“From this year 2017 to 2021, government through the ministry has embarked on human resource increase and Livingstone should stand taller in this programme,”
“We are going to do things differently. Livingstone should take up its position.
The vision of President of President Edgar Lungu in the next five to six years is to have more than 500 health specialist in Zambia. Right now we have less than 230,” he said.
He said that President Lungu had already showed the political will in the infrastructure development, human resource and supply chain in the health sector.
Dr. Chilufya said that Livingstone Central Hospital was already accredited as a training site by the College of Health Sciences for East, Central and Southern Africa as well as for surgeons.
“Livingstone Central Hospital is such a strategic institution. The hospital need to shift the paradigm not only to provide health services but also to provide teaching services. We must move in to the next level,
“The translation of a central hospital needs you to set targets on the number of undergraduate doctors you should produce. If we don’t train doctors, 20 years from day, posterity will judge us,” he said.
He said later this year, Livingstone Central Hospital will enroll post graduate doctors in all departments.
And Livingstone Central Hospital Senior Medical Superintendent John Kachimba informed the minister that the hospital has embarked on rehabilitation and renovation works of its infrastructure.
Dr. Kachimba however bemoaned that the infrastructure had an old wiring which needed to be worked on.
