Friday, March 29, 2024

Government working to end evacuations of patients-Kasonde

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MINISTER of Health Dr. Joseph Kasonde gives his speech during the Zambia and Zimbabwe (ZamZim) joint World malaria day commemoration at Mukuni Park in Livingstone
MINISTER of Health Dr. Joseph Kasonde

GOVERNMENT says it will ensure that all referral hospitals in Zambia are modernised so that the country is in a position to handle various medical complications without having to refer them abroad.

Health Minister, Dr. Joseph Kasonde has pointed out that Government has devised a three-pronged approach under the modernisation of health facilities plan which will see the improvement of medical infrastructure, installation of advanced medical equipment and the training of medical personnel to handle specialist cases.

Dr. Kasonde said Government was moving fast and has so far made good progress in acquiring some pieces of specialised equipment and embarked on extensive infrastructure development at a number of hospitals including Lusaka’s University Teaching Hospital. He said Government has also started training Zambian specialists to handle heart, kidney, diabetes and other complicated cases.

One Zambian has just finished training as a cardiologist while others specialising in procedures such as Kidney transplant were yet to graduate.

He said a lot of progress has been made in equipping referral hospitals with CT Scans having been acquired for Lusaka and Kitwe. A CT Scan is an advanced form of x-ray which is used to diagnose medical complications. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine and a Cathlab have been fitted in Lusaka. Both facilities are also used in medical diagnosis.

“So in that line, I think we are now moving very fast. The only challenge is the need for high-level specialists and this has continued being a problem because it takes a very long time to train them.

Otherwise, we are on course and we will eventually attain standards where we will be able to treat complicated cases using our own staff and in our own facilities in Zambia,” Dr. Kasonde said.
The Minister noted that he understood the basis of concerns from some sections of society in Zambia over the costs involved in sending patients abroad but called for sober reflection and consideration of what led to authorities making such decisions.

“I agree with those raising concern because it is an expensive venture to send patients outside the country. But let me say that people should also understand that we have started off in the direction of bringing that to an end. They should also realise that there are three elements to this with the first being infrastructure development, secondly acquisition of equipment and the third being the need for specialists. The first two are easier and quicker to implement but they will be useless without the right human capital in place,” he said.

He said the country has also been relying on doctors from Apollo, a group of hospitals from India, who have been sending their specialists into Zambia. This has contributed to reducing on the number of cases requiring evacuation abroad.

Dr. Kasonde was in South Africa for a meeting with Medical Services Organisation (MSO) who have been facilitating the evacuation of Zambians to South Africa over the last 10 years.
The Minister later took time off to visit President Sata’s son, Kazimu, and other Zambian patients admitted to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg.

33 COMMENTS

    • Dr Kasonde,,,,, has Sata heard about your plans of ending evacuations???,,,,,,,,its a good idea!!… but just be careful,,,, you might be accused of wanting Sata dead,,,,, because Sata`s life depends on the very same evacuations

    • Doctors like him shouldn’t be appointed in such positions like managers and ministers….its a waste of resources.
      Please dont forget the oldman…how much money have we wasted on jet fuel on him alone?

  1. 50 years after independence and we are talking about ONE Zambian having specialized as a Cardiologist! And we call it good progress?

    • And that cardiologist has just finished training with no real expertise yet. When you go to a doctor you don’t look at what they are trained to do but also their experience. How can this man say that “Government was moving fast” when it’s only 1 cardiologist for 14 million people? Please!!! If that cardiologist is busy with a high profile patient then the nation has to queue.

      Get us 50 each of cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons, brain surgeons etc and then you can say that you are moving fast. Yaba!

    • There are a lot of Zambian cardiologists practicing overseas. It will be interesting to see if the one they are training will stay in Zambia. The shortage is worldwide. If the developed world is struggling to retain these specialists, what about poor old little Zambia? I know a specialist who is relaxing in Livingstone not working just because as much as he loves Zambia, he would rather not deal with our bottlenecks at MOH.

  2. Fusekeni they only people who get evacuated are the president and those close to him. You are all rubbish but things do catch up with you and there is no hospital abroad that will fix you.

  3. Typical Zambian politics… get the facilities read y then proclaim … We can build Mwanawasa stadium but no state of the art ICU …
    What a joke pa Zed

  4. Sata’s body cleansing system is now functionally kaput! He is almost every other day hooked to a dialysis machine. I did mention the other time that the guy can hardly talk thus comes as no surprise that he was quite all the time when expanding the stinking family forest with more swearing ins. Very sooner than later, something is gonna give, and this I expect to be the life of abena Charlie Kays Mwango itself. My biggest worry now is what as Zambians we are going to do with the consequences of this massive exposure to tribal bigotry the SOB has exposed the country to. If Bembas are not careful, this could spell the break up of the country which could lead to people in all other parts of Zambia forsaking them. Mark my word.

  5. All a cover-up explanation; following the embarrassing bungled evacuation of the members of one privileged family for various special medicare care attention abroad at our expense as, we, the lesser mortals, die for lack of such facilities at home.

  6. How many accident victims have we had ever since u took over and how many of them have u evacuated apart from abana benu? Mwe ndoshi mwe, pipo are dying while on a que for cancer treatment at U T H and u are busy evacuating pipo who went to misbehave to Solwezi! Whatever goes up, comes down and we are waiting for u to land.

  7. Evacuation of patients is a general term it is more like evacuation of politicians and senior government officials at tax payers expense. All just a bunch of lies.

  8. Bushe iwe Kasonde, tell me why you and your boss don’t feel ashamed to always depend on foreign countries for your medications? How do you think these countries you leech on think about you as leaders? Do you think they have any shred of respect for you? Please stop tarnishing our image.

  9. ” Talk about it” the problem is not that we have no specialists the problem is political will coupled with the economic depression that took place towards the end of the Kaunda era. We had produced some of the best pilots ever, medical doctors Engineers teachers etc. most of these brains left after the economic depression. Dr. Kasonde what is needed now is build the facility and look for cardiologists, surgeons, etc. and attract the Zambian experts who are allover the world who can be trained within the shortest possible time. We have so many Chinese road engineers working with our own why can you not get those cardiologists etc to work with some of our medical specialists. America is what it is today because of open mind they have specialists even from Zambia. “Talk about it”

    • Improving our health system does not require training of medical personal rather it’s the pay structure that needs to be improved and if money is available this can be done overnight. You can get specialist from other country if the working conditions are attractive.

  10. Ati, so far one zambian has just finished training as cardiologist… ONLY ONE and you call that progress to sing about on hilltops??

  11. Dr kasman..two months now hospitals didn’t receive grant and yet our beloved son’s and dota’s of the elite are enjoying rich and fresh foods in private hospitals in SA…when are you changing your mindset?You have made it hard for many of us to get back to school because of silly policies made by mother and child without father not to train dr’s from 1st level hosptla come on guys its time grew sense of responsibility and help poor zambians. Could you fund hospitals on time or else many of us will leave the bush. Not exciting anymore.

  12. Who gets evacuated? It is not the ordinary citizens but yourselves and your relatives. You dont need to work on anything, but just stop evacuations starting from Sata himself. People should take out medical cover if they want to go and die outside the country.

  13. Has Dr Kasonde just woken up from deep slumber. Does it take 50 years for him and fellow failures to know that hospitals need modernisation regularly to meet the ever growing cases of complicated illnesses?
    Dr Kasonde is saying all this because of pressure from the people of Zambia otherwise he would never have come out with this dubious statement. He is not even ashamed of talking about just one cardiologist. I would rather challenge him to tell the nation how much has been spent on Sata and his son just these past 4 weeks.

  14. 50 years down the line, nobody thought of this. Well done PF Govt. Most of the bloggers on lusakatimes need to have their brains examined locally.

  15. This just goes to show what dull leaders are occupying sensitive offices. Never try talk rubbish again. How do you intend to improve the status quo when the facilities are still run under colonial policies. Atase! How dare you open your mouth to talk of a cardiologist against 15 million people. Your brain is sick try get ebola medicine.

  16. This is day dreaming. The problem in Africa is that even educated people like Dr Kasonde and Katema use their backs when thinking. Wouldn’t be surprised if others thought they were thinking using their bottoms.
    Doctor, atleast Dr Sondashi is helping mother Zambia not you guys in PF.

  17. Dr Kasonde, no matter what your plans are, Zambian medical facilities will never be prestigious enough for certain classes of citizens, that is the issue at hand. However, dream on, lesser citizens like myself and others may just benefit from the crumbs of our own taxes.

  18. Yes im a Dr and not planning to come back unfortunately. Drs in z busy blocking each other like a lot of spiders in a bottle preying on one another, training is a myth, one only “trains” by sponsoring oneself and resigning from govt. It used to exist under Kaunda where people were systematically trained abroad but now its all gone to the dogs a long time ago. Health burden is only gonna get worse, there is a coming tsunami of diabetes and heart disease in the new middle class, z is not equipped to handle it. Does that sound like a familiar scenario? i.e like the HIV scenario which is not yet over, ok, this one will be several fold worse. If you civilians here only knew the issues involved you would cry. Gosh…

  19. He should be absolutely ashamed at mentioning ONE cardiologist!!! This is the time when the government should pass dual citizenship. I’m the Canadian wife of a Zambian man and we live most of the year in Zambia. I am in need of a neurologist and I cannot trust the Zambian medical system so therefore I must travel at least once a year to another country to consult with my doctors.
    If the Zambian government actually wanted to further their medical system they would: 1) pass dual citizenship so that Zambians trained in other countries can come back to practise, 2) purchase proper medical equipment so that trained Zambian doctors will actually want to come home to practise, 3) focus on issues that do affect the everyday life of Zambian women (advance maternity care), and 4) GIVE A DAMN!!!

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