By Dr. Chiyaba Njovu
When I look back at stories of eminent Zambians being evacuated for medical treatment abroad, my heart bleeds. Is this the way we are going to live surely? What about my poor mother who is not known by anybody in government or has no voice of her own? But if it is FTJ, Sata, some government minister or any of the so-called eminent people falling ill, they are quickly evacuated at great expense to specialist hospitals abroad. This begs the question: are some Zambian lives more important than others? How about our hard working ordinary civil servants, the general citizenry, the children, the orphans, the disabled? Aren’t they too entitled to good health care?
To me this says a lot about our social policies; our medical systems in Zambia and government’s lack of long term planning. Medical issues affect all citizens and it saddens me to see people who could have been contributing to the development of Zambia dying in their homes. While, we appreciate that government may not have enough money for improving medical facilities country wide, there are better ways in which the meagre resources available could be used for the benefit of the majority Zambians. We seem to have enough resources for all the non-essential things that please whoever is in power but we fail to prioritise the most important thing to every living human being – the right to life through good health care. We all need good health care irrespective of one’s status in society.
I would love to hear what plans all political parties have on this and many other that affect every citizen in the country. This is worrying. We need these leaders to address issues of health care, education, employment, food, housing and wealth generation ventures and not name calling. I urge all Zambians to take these leaders to task on these issues and evaluate them accordingly.
Proposal to help fund health care and lessen the burden on the tax payer
In the case of the rich people, former heads of state and other eminent people in society who have a secured pension, I think it would help Zambia as a nation if these people could be entitled or made to pay into a medical insurance fund (taken off from their retirement package or paid from their individual pockets) which should be contributed to a hospital sponsored insurance company of their choice.
This package would allow them to access medical treatment at that hospital and where that hospital lacks the required facilities, the insurance company would then pay for the affected person to be treated at any hospital anywhere in the world. Contributions from such a scheme would not only generate money for capacity building at the hospitals running such a scheme but would also allow for ease of co-operation with other specialists in the region and world over.
I believe that this would save money instead of the ad hoc knee-jerk reactions of evacuating former heads of state or so-called eminent people to foreign hospitals at great expense to the tax payer. The tax payer foots the bill for these eminent people but the same government fails to foot the bill for the tax payer when faced with a similar situation. This to me is worse than apartheid.
As the Zambian economy grows and the capacity to pay for many Zambians increases, such a scheme would not only help improve the quality of healthcare in Zambia but may in the long term help improve the quality of lives for the majority Zambians. If we were to take lessons from our colonial masters, the idea here would be to emulate the National Health Service as operated in the UK. Think and look beyond today and plan for how such a scheme would operate in Zambia. There are many ways we could explore into forging ahead with such an idea.
It would be wise for government to seriously consider such a move because ad hoc evacuations can never be sustained. Ordinary Zambians too should by right be entitled to medical treatment as lives for all Zambians are valuable. I do not want to say this because some prominent people are unwell but as leaders, irresponsible actions while in office have repercussions on other people’s lives, and at times even their own lives. We need to carry out our responsibilities seriously as leadership must be viewed to be a responsible undertaking for national development. That is the reason why most serious governments take matters of education, health, environment and food security very seriously.
Leaders must have a vision for tomorrow and not behave like they shall remain leaders eternally. Take a look at our former president, his excellency Mr. FTJ Chiluba who has to frequently rush to South Africa for treatment. Should he be in such a situation if he had thought about a post FTJ Zambia? You need to run a country in a way that makes you feel you could live happily as an ordinary citizen. FTJ’s case should not be seen as the first and last one. Many Zambians have felt let down by our governments before but no one ever considers their plight. We need to learn a lesson not only as former presidents but anyone who is in a responsible public office.
