Muchinga Province Permanent Secretary Tuesday Bwalya has given the Nakonde District Hospital management a 14-days ultimatum to improve sanitation at the health facility.
Dr Bwalya noted with concern that the toilet facilities at the hospital are not well maintained with most of them having been non-functional for some time.
ZANIS reports that, speaking when he inspected the health facility in Nakonde yesterday, Dr Bwalya lamented that patients at the hospital are forced to use buckets and water drums due to the poor water reticulation systems for the toilets. 
He charged that the situation observed is below governments expected standards of a health facility, stating that management should address the sanitation problem within 14 days.
“We do not want our patients to be subjected to such conditions when they are seeking medical services and I want the hospital management to take this directive very seriously because I will come back to check if the need has been done,” he added.
Dr Bwalya further appealed to management at the facility to also address the problem of the mortuary which has not been functional for over three months now.
He said there is also need to urgently fix the fridges at the mortuary in order to avoid congesting the Nakonde Urban Clinic which has a limited body capacity.
The Permanent Secretary explained that these measures are aimed at improving health service delivery to the people in a conducive and sanitary environment.
And acting Nakonde District Director for Health Services, Moses Bwanga assured the Permanent Secretary that the situation will be addressed within the stipulated time frame.
He stated that the hospital management will immediately engage engineers from the local authority to make a thorough assessment after which work on sanitation problems will commence.
“I wish to mention that our estimated cost for this sanitary rehabilitation process will cost us about K100,000 inclusive of the re-operationalisation of the mortuary,” he added.
He also thanked government for the continued support that it has been rendering to the health facility especially in terms of the availability of essential drugs which stands at over 75 per cent.
Meanwhile, Nakonde Council Secretary Donald Mwanza, said that the local authority will work hand-in-hand with the hospital to ensure that all sanitary problems at the facility are resolved in time.
Mr Mwanza said the two parties will immediately source funds for the rehabilitation exercise through various revenue ventures from the local authority.
Why are you giving us that captionless picture on top of the story ba LT? Tell us kabili if it is one of the offending sanitation issues at the hospital. Elyo ba PS muleisako in the beginning of your appointment-not just before elections