First Lady Christine Kaseba has called for the ratification and domestication of the maternity protection in Zambia to help address poverty, maternal and child morality as well as reduce malnutrition among children.

Dr Kaseba said in Lusaka yesterday during the national tripartite dialogue on maternity protection that maternity protection was at the core of decent work and should be used to empower women socially and economically.The meeting was called to engage stakeholders to support the
ratification and domestication of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention Article 183 on Maternity Protection,which once ratified would enable women to go for maternity leave for about six months and protect women from losing their jobs once on leave.

Dr Kaseba said maternity protection would allow women to carry out their biological role while maintain their productive role as workers,
a move that would benefit everyone Including employers and the Government.

She said when a woman was given enough time to recover from delivery and attend to newly born babies through breastfeeding, this would help
her be healthy and apply themselves to productivity at places of work.

“It is unacceptable that women should be pressured to secure casual and low paying jobs and forced indirectly in making family planning
choices for fear of losing their jobs. Without children there will be no bosses and without children there will be no employers and
employees,” she said.

And Labour and Social Security Minister Fackson Shamenda said Government intended to ratify the ILO convention to ensure that pregnant or breastfeeding mothers would not be obliged to perform their duties at places of work.

Mr Shamenda said in a speech read for him by his deputy Rayford Mbulu that maternity leave was guaranteed and where possible cash maternity
benefits should be paid.

He said Government would also ensure that the private sector protect the Maternity protection for the well being of all mothers and children.
The Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FFTUZ) president Joyce Nonde Simukoko and the Zambia Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) president
Leonard Hikaumba both pledged their support towards the ratification and domestication of the ILO convention on maternity protection in
Zambia.

And Zambia Federation of Employers (ZFE) President Alfred Masupa said the challenge in handling the matter was in striking the balance
between ensuring that women’s economic activities do not pose a risk to the health of the women and their babies.
Meanwhile the ILO commended Government for the strides it had made in ensuring the country ratified and domesticated maternity protection
for women.

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]

Operations at the Kitwe Central Hospital (KCH) were yesterday paralysed after medical staff staged a sit-in- protest over alleged accusations of negligence by Kitwe District Commissioner Elias Kamanga.

The nurses, who gathered at the KCH orchard around 07:00 hours, demanded that Mr Kamanga addresses them and apologises for accusing them of negligence when they allegedly failed to attend to a 35-year- old woman who delivered in the vehicle on Tuesday within the KCH premises.

[pullquote]“The woman came very late when she was in her final stage of the pregnancy known as Spontaneous Virginal Delivery (SVD), why did the couple wait for that long to come to the hospital.[/pullquote]

The irate nurses complained that Mr Kamanga accused them of negligence when it was the woman’s fault because she went to the hospital late when her pregnancy was in the final stage.

They said it is not fair that members of the public were always blaming them without getting their side of the story.

The nurses said despite the woman arriving late at the hospital, she was assisted to deliver by a nurse from the pediatric department who later informed the Mid-wife on the third floor at KCH.

“The woman came very late when she was in her final stage of the pregnancy known as Spontaneous Virginal Delivery (SVD), why did the couple wait for that long to come to the hospital.

“We have been defamed because there was no negligence on our part so we want the District Commissioner to apologise and ZNBC to balance its reporting because we can not even move freely as we are being jeered after the incident which we should not be blamed for,” they complained.

The nurses said the woman was even lucky that she delivered in a vehicle at the hospital otherwise she could have delivered even on the way to the hospital and further wondered why she did not go to Ndeke clinic which was near her home.

And Health Workers Union of Zambia (HWUZ) General Secretary Lewis Mukosha and KCH spokesperson Grey Chishimba confirmed the protests.

Mr Mukosha accused Mr Kamanga of alarming the situation and indicated that the protest had the blessing of the union.

But Mr Kamanga said he did not accuse the nurses of being negligent and that there was no way he could rush to accusing the nurses of being negligent when investigations were on going.

And wife of Chingola mayor Cuthbert Kalebaila, Charity who witnesses the incident when the woman was giving birth in the car accused the nurses of negligence.

Mrs Kalebaila said one of the nurses answered her rudely when she went to inform her about the woman’s predicament.

She said it was unfortunate that some nurses had a bad attitude towards patients.