North Western to have midwifery school

Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

By JACK MAPAPAYI

 THE first midwifery school for North Western Province will open in June, says provincial minister Richard Kapita.

Mr Kapita said the school will be situated in Solwezi with an enrolment capacity of about 40 students at a time.

This came to light when Mr Kapita toured Solwezi Nursing School and Solwezi General Hospital yesterday.

Solwezi Nursing School principal tutor Masiya Pumulo told the provincial minister that everything was in place for opening of the planned medical school.

“Everything is in place and we will be having the first intake this year,” he said.

He however said there was need to construct a boundary wall fence at the institution to enhance security.

He said lack of such a facility posed a security challenge to the institution and if left unattended the school could be vandalised.

He said about K1.5 million was required to build a boundary wall around the institution.

“That is the only biggest challenge we have for now, but otherwise everything is in place,” he said.

And Mr Kapita said he was delighted that the province will start training midwifery personnel.

He said it was the desire of the Patriotic Front government to set up such institutions in every part of the country to meet the demand of health personnel in health institutions.

“I am delighted to learn that we will soon have our own school that will be training midwives.  This is good and a right step in the right direction,” he said.

Meanwhile, Solwezi General Hospital acting medical superintendent Dr John Chiluba told the provincial minister that the hospital had enough drugs contrary to assertions by some sections of society that the institution had run out of medicines.

“We have drugs and those that we don’t get from Medical Stores we usually do local purchases using the grants that we get on a monthly basis,”  he said.