Health Minister Joseph Kasonde has called for strengthened private sector partnership and participation in the training of health workers in the country in order to meet the internationally set Nurse – Patient ratio of 2.5 per 1,000 population as currently the country is at 0.8 Nurse to a 1,000 population.
Dr. Kasonde made the call during the first combined Graduation Ceremony for Mansa and St. Pauls Schools of Nursing and Midwifery in Nchelenge District last Friday.
The Health Minister disclosed that there is need to strengthen partnership with the private sector in training health workers for the country because Government alone cannot meet the target as set by the international health bodies.
Dr. Kasonde said Government values the partnership that exists between Government and the Church in the training of health workers as both the Church and Government were serving the same constituency which is the people of Zambia.
And Mansa Diocese Bishop Patrick Chisanga appealed to Government on behalf of St. Pauls School of Nursing and Midwifery to start offering training for Registered Nursing because the Institution has the required infrastructure in place.
Luapula Province Permanent Secretary Boniface Chimbwali appealed to the Ministry of Health to send specialist Doctors to all strategic Health Institutions in the Province.
And Luapula Province Medical Officer Dr. Mathews Ng’ambi disclosed that he is working towards having a skilled health worker to assist in deliveries at every health facility in the province within the next five years.
“In the next five years, every woman in Luapula should deliver with the help of a skilled health worker,” he said.
Work hard nurses. Dont insult patients
That ratio is curious. One would imagine that there would be incentives too good to resist to be a nurse but it appears the current remuneration and conditions give the impression that the profession is saturated. Can someone help me understand the Zambian set up? There appears too many things that defy logic in that country.
This is not surprising. Edgar has no vision. Instead on improving the nurse/patient ratio he has gone ahead to create 5 new ministries. The priorities of the PF govt are all wrong. They bought 157 brand new cars for DCs when hospitals have no gensets. Can you imagine our women giving birth in labour rooms with no electricity and water? What do they care, they go to SA for the slightest ailment
Am not PF but the hatred you UPND cadres have for president Lungu is ridiculous. The man hasn’t even been in office long enough to train a nurse. The shortage of nurses is not just in Zambia. The USA, Japan, England to name but a few have shortage of nurses and it will become worse as their population ages. Even with policies in place that would entice people to train as nurses the shortage will not be avoided. That includes MD’s too. So before you come here and blame everything on President Lungu do some googling first.
Yet the utterly LAZY bum Edgar in State House is busy creating districts appointing DCs, creating whole ministries with ministers, deputies, PS, single sourcing rubbish at a great expense from China, is opting to fly in Private Jets with the whole cabinet instead of Commercial airlines, AND he can not direct precious resources to front line services.
0.8 Nurse to a 1,000 population?
Wouldnt it make better sense to round off the Nurse figure to one and then concomitantly extrapolate the population figure? In reality you can never have a 0.8 nurse. People dont come in fractions