Cleaners and security guards have assumed roles of medical personnel in Eastern Province, the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) report has revealed.
This is as a result of a shortage of qualified medical staff in the province, the report says.
CSPR provincial coordinator Maxwell Nkhoma said unqualified staff are administering drugs to seriously ill patients due to low staffing levels.Mr Nkhoma issued the report in Chipata yesterday.
The affected clinics, according to Mr Nkhoma, are Jumbe and Mphomwa in Mambwe, and Kamulaza in Chipata.
Provincial medical officer Kennedy Malama, who confirmed the shortage of health personnel at some of the 200 health posts in the province, said the problem is being addressed.
Dr Malama said the province faces “some challenges” where staffing levels at health facilities are concerned, citing one case last year where a watchman used to assist in giving birth at one of the clinics but that the problem has been addressed.
“This problem of shortage of staff at clinics was brought up by CSPR in their findings when they were doing their budget tracking. The shortage of staff was there in the first quarter of 2012 but we are addressing the situation and I will give you more details later on which clinics still lack qualified health personnel,” he said.
But Mr Nkhoma maintained that due to low staffing levels in the health sector in the province, non-health workers such as cleaners and guards have been attending to patients and administering drugs at some health centres over the past one year especially in Chipata and Mambwe.
“Through our public budget tracking and service delivery monitoring work in Eastern Province, we see that frontline staffing levels in district hospitals, clinics, health centres and health posts are extremely low,” he said.
Mr Nkhoma said although an analysis of the health sector in the province shows that efforts have been made to improve service delivery in the recent past, Government still needs to do more to address the situation.
Mr Nkhoma said Government should honour its commitment to increasing funding to the health sector as agreed in the Abuja Declaration which requires Governments to allocate 15 percent of their national budgets to the sector.
He said although there has been an increase in budgetary allocations to the health sector in the 2012 and the 2013 national budgets, an analysis of the 2013 national budget showed that only 11.3 percent was allocated to the sector.
Mr Nkhoma said a healthy population has increased capacities to engage in various socio-economic activities which have a direct impact on poverty reduction.
“CSPR sees need for construction of more clinics taking into consideration the long distances covered by the majority of the people in rural areas,” he said.
Mr Nkhoma said the construction of more health facilities should be commensurate with the recruitment of more frontline staff in a quest to address the high patient-nurse ratio.
He said accommodation for health personnel, equipment and drugs should also be sufficient for an effective health care service delivery for all.
Mr Nkhoma also said there is urgent need to upgrade existing health facilities in the province as most of them, especially in rural areas, have no or limited capacity for admission of patients.
He said fighting social injustice and poverty requires political will and commitment from all stakeholders that include Government, civil servants, co-operating partners, the private sector, non-state actors, citizens and the media.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
I nearly thought I was reading the Z.watch.dog. How sad!
What do you mean, what is it about the Zambian watchdog?
PF Promised employment to all pipo………..i can see here that they are indeed delivering accordingly…..lets go PF, show HH that u can also do it yo way!!!!!!!!!!!
Not true
yayayaya.. what the heck is happening? what is `man of action` who is also scared of people without hair doing about it? Can someone go and knock on his bedroom door and find out whats happening
Go and knock yourself. What is wrong with people who have gained experience not give drugs. Were you delivered by a mid-wife? It is the same azimai that brought you in the world. Do villagers have medical personnel to do what they do best?
@kapala… i have a `kapala ` if i go there and knock, it wil freak the heck out of him, am told the juju he `ate` is ` ichishimba icha samson icha mu mishishi from his tanzanian sogoma
Ndobo, ndobo, ndobo, iyo kwena uliwalupato. Looks like to you really have sleepless nights MCS being at plot 1. Ala mune, it is high time to accepted him as your president because there is nothing you can do about it. I am sure you wept when he was being sworn in. You see in life, insansa kucinjanya. Don’t just think about yourself. After MCS, it will be someone else, life goes on my friend. Iye kwati nindoshi. I think you have even tried to consult your own sangomas just to kill. Natina windowa.
@kapala… i do sleep my boy peacefully in sweden. But i know the growth between his legs is doing him bad really bad.. and ifitumwa fya fulisha kuni bamundala bobe
Well done Man of Action!!! Ha ha ha even guards have something reasonable to do in PF Gvnment!!
More money in their pockets 🙂
Actually the cleaners and guards should be applauded for stepping up.Instead of crying about lack of health personel which won’t be solved mind you,train those who are available to do the job.Leave complex operations to doctors but if a guard can administer a IV fluids so let it be.
LT, The headline is weird, administering drugs to ‘ill patients’.
Iye iye iye, no wonder maternal death rate is high, complications after delivery, life span is short, name it, this is scary bwana! I now dont just blame all these serious problems on poverty, imagine a cleaner delivering and handling a new born from an HIV infected mother, or the one delivering is HIV positive? i mean what the F****** is going on here? who is responsible and who is in charge? awe….., this is a serious crime.
Am so shocked i cant even imagine woah! Iam imagining all that could go wrong with delivering a child and just the importance of all those little details that come with it, am scared for that poor child!
Dr Malama and Mr Nkhoma should explain why cleaners and security guards have been administering drugs to sick and ill patients for over a year. Also MPs representing these areas should explain to the nation. These MPs are not doing their work – day dreaming. Well done cleaners and security guards.
Diplomat allegedly abuses employees
28 Mar 2013 – Story by Magreth Nunuhe
Article Views (non-unique): 169
WINDHOEK – A number of current and former employees of Zambia’s High Commissioner to Namibia, Wendy Sinkala, have accused her of verbally abusing her Namibian domestic workers and of treating them as if they were modern-day slaves.
Chief among the accusations are physical and dehumanising treatment; working for long hours without pay; working non-stop without being given days off; being insulted for no apparent reason; unfair deductions, as well as abrupt dismissals. Workers at the High Commission also accuse the diplomat of making belittling and degrading remarks about Namibians in general.
The workers, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of…
The government will recruit about 2000 health workers this year. Added to that, the minimum wage for government employees is now KR3000. That means the cleaners and maids will get KR3000 and nurses and paramedics about KR5000. Added to that, rural hardship allowance and housing. Please nurses in the Diaspora, come back and contribute to your country.
ohhh yes wil add that to the long list of promises,, from 90days promies to dual carriage ways, ,,,,to more money in the pockets
@ndobo…continue dreaming..whatever you have tabulated is happening i can assure you..those with eyes are seeing..how can you see when you far away from home….dual carriage way from Lusaka to kapiri pahse one is on…kitwe to chingola is on..agreement with the civil servants union was signed on tuesday…what are you saying you moron….get data before you open your mouth.
…CSPR provincial coordinator Maxwell Nkhoma said unqualified staff are administering drugs to seriously ill patients…. Now, my wonder is: LT, how on earth can you say ‘seriously ill patients’? It is either ill people or patients, just.
Sad
I personally saw this at a clinic in Lundazi during a consultancy I did for the Ministry of Health (MOH). The person running the clinic had started work as a night watchman, then was promoted to CDE (classified daily employee), more like a cleaner. Because the Clinical Officer was the only qualified person running the clinic, he enlisted the help of this CDE – essentially, the Clinical Officer would diagnose and the CDE would dispense. The CDE learnt to associate different illnesses with the medicines in this way. When the Clinical Officer fell ill and died after a few years, the CDE took over running the clinic. MOH would send the essential drugs kit each month, and this CDE would sign! He was even giving injections! There’s so much we take for granted in cities.
Just train some of them into midwives and introduce an ambulance system to tranfer patients to other rural clinics in the area for complicated cases.
Just empower the local people by training them. Look into wages and accommodation you will solve the problem.
Rewards to Eastern Province for voting PF government into office. Hard choice but a thief you know is better than a tyrant you don’t know. More horrow to follow till presidency run by Royal Bemba Establishment discontinues. To day Zambians are not aware of the health of president Sata hence, secirity guards and cleaners will continue to administer medicine in Eastern province. Well done PF.
Just send these people to school so when they come back can do a good job dont just call them names have them trained dont damp them they are doing a great job
Bapeni ama Diploma yabu male nurse. They are already qualified!
Don’t think these cleaners can go back to the village after training why should they? They will be on global demand after training and can get better pay elsewhere.C’est la vie
Mwe bena Zambia,please do not think that if some one is a cleaner or a security,nishi
tasambilila iyo!emulandu wine you will never develop!please change your attitudes!
It is not only in EP. This is the situation in all provinces and is a problem the PF government inherited. But those cleaners are not as bad as you think. Most of them have received minor training on the job from the CO and nurces they have been working with. In most cases, they deliver the correct treatment.
However, it is a problem that needs attention, though cannot be solved overnitght.
I agree with you 100% that it is not only in Eastern Province. I saw this this in Sinazongwe District at a place called Siansowa, in Southern Province.The guy doing the job there is a DCE(Daily Classfied Employee). When i asked, i was told the only nurse who is there is on 4 months leave. I even declined to get treatment from the DCE. The District Medical Officer should do something, not forgeting the guy we sent to Parliament.
These guards and cleaners are saving lives! They are capable. Give them more training.
That’s why Mushota dispises Zambia. This is pathetic
People should demand better care.
Did nurses, clinical officers and doctors drop from heaven? These people you call cleaners and watchmen are people too who can be trained and can administer medication and do some basic procedures. Do not dehumanise other people, they can be trained too as they go for workshops as well as job on training
Most of the people are pretenders.Who didnt know that this has been the case in Zambia. it was even worse a few years ago because we could see these things happening in urburn areas. Well done PF the problem has now reduced as it is only remaining in remote areas. im comfident that by next year this issue will be no more.What we need to do is to recognise those patriots who gave themselves to the service even without training as we employ more qualified staffs to fill the gap. more money to the guards and cleaners in arrears. They have proven to be more beneficial to Zambia than those Zambians in diaspora like me and stupid Ndoro and others who just open their foul smelling beaks to criticise and yet they cant do not even a simple thing for Zambia
The story about Mphomwa is half baked coz the story of CDE dispensing I would agree coz I saw it but a guard conducting deliveries is not true. Mphomwa has traditional birth attendants who used to conduct deliveries when the nurse was not around for duty obligations. the way we get information from the community is somehow biased coz you don’t even come to see the centre or clinic.
Give us the real story @ chimwemwe. The situation for real is not good
Am a qualified nurse willing to go n work at any of these clinics. My email is [email protected]
the issue happened three years ago and not currently. no CDE or security guard is delivering at Mphomwa. this is somehow a kind of blackmail to the current government and provincial health administration