Veep hails Prof Nkanza

Vice-President, Rupiah Banda, has hailed a private health practitioner for setting up a laboratory in Lusaka saying this would cut costs for patients travelling abroad seeking medical tests.
Mr Banda said this when he officially opened Professor Nkanza’s laboratories in Lusaka yesterday.
Mr Banda described the laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art machinery as a milestone achievement in the medical history of the country.
“Our people have been trekking to South Africa for various tests, the opening of this laboratory, therefore, will bring relief both to Government and our citizens as it will be cheaper to have these tests locally.
The Government was happy with the support from the private sector in ensuring there was easy access and affordable medical services.
He assured Prof Neil Nkanza of Government’s total support, adding that a solution would be found to concerns raised by the proprietor over delays experienced to clear medical requirements by customs authorities at border points.
The Vice-President also conveyed a congratulatory message from President Mwanawasa on the positive achievement and assured Prof Nkanza of Government support towards the smooth operations of the laboratory.
Mr Banda urged the corporate world and Zambians to render support to the laboratory to help it achieve its intended goals.
Speaking earlier, Prof Nkanza said the laboratory opened its doors to the public 22 months ago and that he was prompted to establish it after seeing the agony endured by locals travelling to neighbouring countries seeking medical attention.
“When patients go out of this country for laboratory investigations the country is not only losing foreign currency but a lot of medical information is lost as the result of those investigations cannot form part of the information that the ministry of Health needs for proper assessment of the medical conditions in Zambia,” he said.
Locally, it was not possible to use that data for purposes of teaching and furthering medical knowledge.
He said the responsibility of providing affordable medical services to the people could not be attained by Government alone but that the private sector should compliment the already existing efforts.
He said public-private partnership was the only way Government could succeed in making health facilities easily accessible to people.
The laboratory had also offered its services to the University Teaching Hospital and the Churches Health Association of Zambia.
Prof Nkanza observed that Laboratories provided value in the use of data in national health planning as it amassed large amounts of disease information vital for planning.
On problems encountered when importing reagents for laboratory use, Prof Nkanza said delays by customs officers, meant huge losses.
The laboratory was opened with the backing of Lancet Laboratories of South Africa.