ACTING Health Minister Brian Chituwo has said the upgrading of five clinics in Lusaka into mini hospitals and the construction of Lusaka District Hospital, are among the intermediate measures Government has undertaken to address congestion at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).
Speaking in Lusaka yesterday when he toured UTH to check on progress and challenges the institution was facing, Dr Chituwo said the Government was committed to ensuring that quality health care delivery was maintained at the country’s highest referral hospital.
“The upgrading of five clinics in Lusaka into mini hospitals would drastically reduce congestion at UTH because we will have specialists offering quality health care to people as close to their homes as possible. This will mean we will see the number of patients flocking to UTH, reduce,” he said.
Dr Chituwo said the hospital had a mandate to offer health care to all patients in need, and that even when the hospital was filled to capacity, they could not turn away patients.
He said media reports that UTH was heavily congested could not be denied, but was quick to mention that congestion at places such as the Filter Clinic, was only a temporary measure, as patients were quickly evacuated to other wards for admissions, within a space of 24 hours.
He said the Filter Clinic seemed congested because that was where patients in need of emergency care were attended to and once stabilised, they were evacuated to other wards.
Dr Chituwo, who is also Science and Technology Minister, said Government was also in the process of re-opening some of the closed nursing training institutions and that Government had plans of establishing another school of medicine in order to address the shortages of staffing levels in the health sector.
Meanwhile, Dr Chituwo was elated to find that hospital equipment worth billions of dollars were being properly utilised at the hospital.
He was referring to diagnostic machines such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the computerised tomography (CT) scanning equipment.
And Dr Chituwo maintained that government would not reverse its decision on the procurement of mobile hospitals.
He said the procurement of the mobile hospitals had reached an advanced stage.
[Times of Zambia]
Hard headed fools! Build Health Centres in rural areas not mobile hospitals. That will help in decongesting UTH. How will the Mobile Hospital go to Kalabo wen the road is still incomplete? N where will the medical staff come from wen UTH needs 2,000 extra nurses?
UTH needs a serious upgrade coz most of the equipment is obsolete save for one or two n the medical staff there need motivation as well. I look 4wad to the day RB will go 4 a knee massage at UTH not South Africa
Kudos to the POST for exposing the congestion at UTH.Those poor people could ve been on the floor up to now.
This is one reason why some of us will always be strong supporters of the POST.
BS again never listen from these fools. Why now? F.U.C.K them all.
How is UTH going to be decongested? By putting people in the mobile clinics?
Dr Chituwo, did you say there will be specialists offering quality health care at the mini hospitals? If this is correct we expect this nonsense of sending some special people to SA for knee check-ups at tax payers expense.
….Bakabolala bachinfya!
While the efforts to decongest UTH are commendable, I have issue with this quote; ‘Meanwhile, Dr Chituwo was elated to find that hospital equipment worth billions of dollars were being properly utilised at the hospital.
He was referring to diagnostic machines such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the computerised tomography (CT) scanning equipment.’ There is no way in a billion years that the equipment would have cost billions of dollars!
UTH WILL ALWAYS BE FULL BCOS THE COMMUNITY IS SICK AND 70% OF DISEASE PATTERN IS HIV/AIDS RELATED. DO YOU EXPECT PATIENTS TO BE SENT BACK HOME WHEN THE BEDS ARE FULL HELL NO THEY WILL BE ADMITTED AND GIVEN FLOOR BEDS. FLOOR BEDS HAVE NOT COME TODAY BCOS EVEN IN KK ERA WE HAD THEM. UTH ISNT LIKE A HOTEL OR PRIVATE HOSPITALS WERE THEY TURN YOU AWAY WHEN FULL. GOOD ENOUGH LUSAKA HOSPITAL WILL OFFER A LONG TERM SOLUTION THEN WE HAVE HEALTH CADRES WHO WE TRAIN AT HUGE COST RUNNING AWAY TO BECOME ECONOMIC REFUGEES YET THE ARE SUBJECTED TO SAME CONDTIONS WEREVER THEY GO NO IMPROVEMENT IN LIFESTYLE.
#8 I do not accept your concluding remark. How can you say that someone who migrates to the UK and earns £150k per year is no better off than a Consultant at UTH? How can you say that a nurse who earns £30k per year is no better off than a nurse at UTH? Is the quality of life better in the UK? Yes. Will you have access to better and free education and healthcare? Yes.
that’s little, is that footballer’s weekly wage, eg John terry of Chelsea fc
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#9 CAN YOU LEAD A DECENT LIFE ON THAT AMOUNT OF MONEY WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE BILLS YOU HAVE TO PAY RENT, GAS, INSURANCE, GABBAGE, PHONES, HEALTH AND MANY OTHER BILLS HOW MUCH DO YOU REMAIN WITH. THATS WHY YOU HAVE TO WORK AND WORK BCOS YOU CANT MAKE A SAVING AND THATS WHY YOU ALWAYS LOOK FOWARD TO YOUR NEXT PAYCHEK. WHEN YOU STAY AWAY FROM WORK FOR ONE MONTH BILLS WILL PILE THATS WHY WHEN YOU COME FOR HOLIDAY KU ZED YOU WANT TO GO BACK VERY FAST BCOS YOU SOON EXHAUST YOUR MONEY USING DEBT CARD. PA ZED IN OUR OWN WAY WE MANAGE AND THATS HOW COME WE DONT RENT HOUSES BUT BUILD OUR OWN WE DONT HIRE PURCHASE CARS WE BUY OUR OWN CASH
1. Uncontrolled HIV epidemic means hospitals always full.
2. Too few medical stuff
3. Who was talking about specialists? are you dreaming?
4. Grossly demotivated medical stuff.
5. Very inefficient medical system.Zero quality.