The Zambia Flying Doctors Service (ZFDS) is expected to provide enhanced medical services to more rural and hard to reach areas after repairing an aircraft that was grounded in 2017.

The Zambia Civil Aviation Authority on Saturday morning certified 9J – AGC aircraft airworthy at the Zuze ZAF base in Ndola.

Civil Aviation Authority Chief Inspector Flight Operations Stewart Yeta said the inspection of the repaired aircraft was successful.

“We came to ensure that this aircraft met maintenance requirements. We have issued the Zambia Flying Doctors Service the certificate of airworthiness,” Mr. Yeta said.

ZFDS Chief Executive Officer Dr. George Ng’uni said with two aircrafts working now the Flying Doctors will be able to send multiple teams for outreaches to service more patients.

Dr. Ng’uni said with resources permitting the Zambia Flying Doctors Service is seeking to start reaching all the ten provinces twice in a month.

“We operated with one aircraft for a long time. We had to work round the clock to overhaul and fix the aircraft engine. This has increased our capacity to service the rural areas and hard to reach places. We were just operating one aircraft to do both evacuations and medical outreaches now we will be able to send multiple teams in different areas, “Dr. Ng’uni said.

Zambia Flying Doctors Service Chief Inspector Hilda Simulambo described the flight test conducted today as perfect.

“We went for a flight test and the flight test was perfect. Now Zambia Flying Doctors Service has two aircrafts running. We are going to increase our outreaches,” she said.

The Zambia Flying Doctor Service is a grant-aided service delivery statutory board under the Ministry of Health.

It was created under an Act of Parliament No 37 of 1967 with amendment No 18 of 1972 and repealed by act No 25 of 1975 Chapter 298 of the Laws of Zambia.The Zambia Flying Doctors Service (ZFDS) is expected to provide enhanced medical services to more rural and hard to reach areas after repairing an aircraft that was grounded in 2017.

The Zambia Civil Aviation Authority on Saturday morning certified 9J – AGC aircraft airworthy at the Zuze ZAF base in Ndola.

Civil Aviation Authority Chief Inspector Flight Operations Stewart Yeta said the inspection of the repaired aircraft was successful.

“We came to ensure that this aircraft met maintenance requirements. We have issued the Zambia Flying Doctors Service the certificate of airworthiness,” Mr. Yeta said.

ZFDS Chief Executive Officer Dr. George Ng’uni said with two aircrafts working now the Flying Doctors will be able to send multiple teams for outreaches to service more patients.

Dr. Ng’uni said with resources permitting the Zambia Flying Doctors Service is seeking to start reaching all the ten provinces twice in a month.

“We operated with one aircraft for a long time. We had to work round the clock to overhaul and fix the aircraft engine. This has increased our capacity to service the rural areas and hard to reach places. We were just operating one aircraft to do both evacuations and medical outreaches now we will be able to send multiple teams in different areas, “Dr. Ng’uni said.

Zambia Flying Doctors Service Chief Inspector Hilda Simulambo described the flight test conducted today as perfect.

“We went for a flight test and the flight test was perfect. Now Zambia Flying Doctors Service has two aircrafts running. We are going to increase our outreaches,” she said.

The Zambia Flying Doctor Service is a grant-aided service delivery statutory board under the Ministry of Health.

It was created under an Act of Parliament No 37 of 1967 with amendment No 18 of 1972 and repealed by act No 25 of 1975 Chapter 298 of the Laws of Zambia.

The Zambia Flying Doctors Service team conducting health outreach programmes in Senanga district in Western province has noticed an increase in hypertension cases and other communicable diseases.

The team has since observed that these are the major cases affecting people in the area.

Zambia Flying Doctor Service Team leader, Richard Khaki, has attributed the increase in hypertension cases to people’s change in lifestyle of abandoning their traditional food.

Dr Khaki noted that the high intake of salt and lack of exercise among the people is contributing to an increase of hypertension cases.

“The people around Litambya rural health center are closer to Senanga town and most of them have adopted the town eating habits hence contributing to increase in heart diseases,” he said.

Dr Khaki said arthritis was also noticed in most people who were above 50 years, noting that aging comes with a lot of complications.

Litambya has a population of 7,432 people but the team did the general screening of the 424 patients.

The Zambia Flying Doctors Service Team leader stated that for laboratory service, nine people were seen against the target of 50 as there were not many infectious diseases such as malaria cases.

Dr Khaki said the medical team, which is in Senanga district for five days, operated on one patient at Senanga district hospital on the first day.

He said 443 patients were attended to on the first day against the target of 245 as set by the Zambia Flying Doctors Service.

Meanwhile, Senanga residents have thanked the Zambia Flying Doctors Service for offering medical services to people in the hard to reach areas.

Constance Mufaya said people in the Litambya area have a lot of ailments affecting them but have no access to specialised service closer to their homes.

Ms Mufaya said the Zambia Flying Doctor Services’ visit to the area is a blessing to many people in Senanga.

“I am happy that they are attending to different kinds of ailments and I am a beneficiary of the reading glasses because I have a problem with my eyes. I thank them for coming to the aid of rural people,” she said.

Another resident, Annie Mabuku, said accessing medical services in the remote areas is a hassle as one has to walk a long distance to access medication.

She and the initiative to take the medical services closer to the people is welcome.

Senanga District Administrative Officer, Munalula Mufaya, said the district has a difficult terrain where the mode of transport for people is a vehicle that has a four wheel.

Mr Mufaya said the scenario makes people keep their ailment for a long time because they have difficulties in accessing specialised medication.

“It is good that the Zambia Flying Doctors Service is here because a doctor’s hand of a doctor will touch most of them,” Mr Mufaya said.

The Zambia Flying Doctors Service team conducting health outreach programmes in Senanga district in Western province has noticed an increase in hypertension cases and other communicable diseases.

ZANIS reports that the team has since observed that these are the major cases affecting people in Litambya area.

Zambia Flying Doctor Service Team leader, Richard Khaki, has attributed the increase in hypertension cases to people’s change in lifestyle of abandoning their traditional food.

Dr Khaki noted that the high intake of salt and lack of exercise among the people is contributing to an increase of hypertension cases.

“The people around Litambya rural health center are closer to Senanga town and most of them have adopted the town eating habits hence contributing to increase in heart diseases,” he said.

Dr Khaki said arthritis was also noticed in most people who were above 50 years, noting that aging comes with a lot of complications.

Litambya has a population of 7,432 people but the team did the general screening of the 424 patients.

The Zambia Flying Doctors Service Team leader stated that for laboratory service, nine people were seen against the target of 50 as there were not many infectious diseases such as malaria cases.

Dr Khaki said the medical team, which is in Senanga district for five days, operated on one patient at Senanga district hospital on the first day and 30 other people were  screened.

He said 443 patients were attended to on the first day against the target of 245 as set by the Zambia Flying Doctors Service.

Meanwhile, Senanga residents have thanked the Zambia Flying Doctors Service for offering medical services to people in the hard to reach areas.

Constance Mufaya said people in the Litambya area have a lot of ailments affecting them but have no access to specialised service closer to their homes.

Ms Mufaya said the Zambia Flying Doctor Services’ visit to the area is a blessing to many people in Senanga.

“I am happy that they are attending to different kinds of ailments and I am a beneficiary of the reading glasses because I have a problem with my eyes. I thank them for coming to the aid of rural people,” she said.

Another resident, Annie Mabuku, said accessing medical services in the remote areas is a hassle as one has to walk a long distance to access medication.

She said the initiative to take the medical services closer to the people is welcome.

Senanga District Administrative Officer, Munalula Mufaya, said the district has a difficult terrain where  in most places  the mode of transport for people is a vehicle that has a four wheel.

Mr Mufaya said the scenario makes people keep their ailment for a long time because they have difficulties in accessing specialised medication.

“It is good that the Zambia Flying Doctors Service is here because a doctor’s hand of a doctor will touch most of them,” Mr Mufaya said.

Stakeholders at the ongoing regional workshop on health and climate change taking place in Lilongwe, Malawi have been urged to seriously look beyond the infectious, communicable diseases but begin to see the bigger symbiotic relationship between population growth and climate change.

According to Prof. Sosten Chiwotha, the Executive Director of Leadership in Environment and Development (LEAD) for Southern and Eastern Africa, environmental degradation creates vulnerability to climate change and this environmental degradation mainly comes because of population growth.

He further said environmental degradation brings in two extremes; excessive rainfall, which subjects land to flooding and makes people who rely on surface water like rivers and wetlands to have problems because the water which they would have used, may have run off because of environmental degradation and eventually lead to drought.

“When you have high population growth, it means people settle in areas that are fragile because in normal places they cannot settle or grow crops because they are already occupied. This therefore means that whenever there is extreme weather like flush floods, it is in those fragile areas where people stay because of high population growth and urbanization leading to exposure to disasters.

“There are these linkages between climate change, health, and the impacts of extreme weather shocks that appear to be escaping the discussions around climate change and health. People must be empowered to begin seeing the interconnectedness of population, environment and health in development. This is what will fully bring in resilience,” Chiwotha said.

He further said voluntary family planning is one of the strategies that need to be in place in the adaptation to climate change drive. He said if people decide to choose as to when to have children and make choice of caring and educating their children, they will be able to do other things like growing crops and growing trees.

“For adaptation to be effective, everyone must participate whether it is the youths, women and this will be good for building resilience. When we have floods, we find that some clinics are washed away, and the women are the worst affected in such situation so we should not leave them behind when it comes to building resilience.

“The main point is that we want to create opportunities for everyone to participate fully in the adaptation drive and it should not be policy makers and duty bearers only. For your information, it is evident that the demand for voluntary family planning is higher than the services rendered which means that most people have already embraced the concept of voluntary family planning, “he said.

The workshop is taking place under the USAID-funded Building Capacity for Integrated Family Planning/Reproductive Health and Population, Environment and Development Action (BUILD) project which has drawn together its consortium members like AFIDEP, the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, the LEAD, FHI360, and Path Foundation of Philippines. However, the workshop is a joint effort of BUILD, through AFIDEP, PACJA and LEAD have teamed up with the Amref Health Africa, Africa Group of Negotiators, WHO and Welcome Trust.
Dr Eliya Zulu, the Executive Director of the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) called on partners to put in enough resources into health research, innovation and integrated approaches that would inform a nexus programming to the effects of climate change.

“Time has come for Africa to set its priorities right and drive formal discussions that are critical this time when the continent has been hit hard by the cyclone Freddy and other incidents not only in Malawi but also in other African countries, be it drought, or otherwise.

“It is important to build political momentum on the global climate change diplomacy and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNCCC) negotiations to build evidence and arguments that will support Africa’s agenda to reshape health preparedness and responsiveness to climate change effects,” he said.
Zulu added by calling all the participants to look at the impact of population growth on development and climate change. He urged participants to use evidence-based information in mitigating the impact of climate change on health in the light of population growth.