Wed, 18 Oct 2017 10:08:35 +0000
BY LINDA SOKO TEMBO
GOVERNMENT’s plan to provide quality health care closer to the people and achieve vision 2020, on Monday moved a step further when it unveiled three eye clinics in Lusaka.
The new clinics are in Chawama, Bauleni and Mandevu, and were built by Standard Chartered Bank at a cost of US$304, 000.
Speaking when he officially launched the three eye clinics at Chawama Level One Hospital Ministry of Health (MoH) Permanent Secretary Jabbin Mulwanda said the clinics would go a long way in contributing to the attainment of government’s vision 2020 ‘the right to sight’.
Dr. Mulwanda who represented Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya at the event, said 80 percent of visual disability was avoidable and yet most people walked with visual disability which impacted on their productivity in life.
He explained that eye conditions were among the top five reasons why people came to the clinics.
The PS explained that for government to ensure citizens were healthy, it needed to expand and bring health facilities closer to the people.
Dr. Mulwanda said government through MoH had been investing specifically in the eye area and had expanded up to 70 percent coverage nationally. He however said there were still many areas that were underserved.
“We still have work to do for us to sustain what we have gained and to achieve more improvement there are a few provinces where eye care services are difficult to access,” he said.
The PS said the work to improve eye clinics throughout the country could not be achieved by government alone.
“We urge partners like Standard Chartered Bank to continue working with us so that our vision 2020 could be achieved,” he said.
Dr. Mulwanda explained that the MoH had embarked on a programme to train eye specialists starting with the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and that the training would be extended to Kitwe General Hospital.
“For the very first time we have a public health facility dedicated to eye care services and this is a major development this will expand to other provinces,” he said.
Meanwhile Standard chartered bank managing director Herman Kasekende said the bank believed in making a difference in communities where they lived.
Mr. Kasekende explained that the bank ran a global initiative called “Seeing is believing” which was designed to tackle avoidable blindness and visual impairment.
He said that the bank had committed to raise a total of US$100 million between 2003 and 2020 towards Seeing is believing.
“From 2003 to December 2016 a total of US$ 92.8 million has been raised from Seeing is believing and is being invested in eye health projects that range from comprehensive eye care in low and middle-income areas to build innovations such as the one we are witnessing today,” he said.
Mr. Kasekende said that the clinics were fully equipped with state-of-the art eye diagnostic equipment that would help in the detective, prevention and correction of people who unfortunately succumbed to avoidable blindness.
He thanked the government of Zambia through the Ministry of Health for creating an enabling environment that was helping the private sector to thrive.
The enabling environment had made it possible for organisations to make societal contributions as the case was with the three new clinics, Mr. Kasekende said.
