LOCAL Government and Housing Minister Eustarckio Kazonga has said the leaders of the pact formed by the United Party for National Development (UPND) president and Patriotic Front leader are exhibiting ignorance by criticising the acquisition of mobile hospitals which will benefit the majority people in the rural areas.
Dr Kazonga said the acquisition of the mobile hospitals would boost the operations of the health departments in all the local authorities in the country and called on Zambians to avoid being cheated by opposition leaders and Kafulafuta MP, George Mpombo who had been condemning the acquisition of mobile hospitals.
Zambia and China have already signed an agreement for the provision of US$53 million loan to acquire mobile hospitals to serve rural communities.
Dr Kazonga said the acquisition of mobile hospitals had been ignorantly politicised but that people on the ground were excited about the development.
The minister said local authorities struggled in the past to mount preventive measures against waterborne and other diseases because patients had to be transported to hospitals to conduct research.
Dr Kazonga said Mr Sata and Mr Hichilema had continued to mislead Zambians without giving them proper facts.
He said he had personally conducted research on how the mobile hospitals had been used to deliver quality health care to the people in countries where the system had been implemented.
Dr Kazonga said local authorities had a responsibility to improve the road network in places that were not accessible to ensure that mobile hospitals reach all parts of the country.
The minister said condemning the acquisition of mobile hospitals because of the poor road network was merely meant to politicise the acquisition of mobile hospitals because it would make the Government popular.
Dr Kazonga said the Ministry of Health would work with provincial and district health authorities to ensure maximum use of the hospital hospitals.
[ Times of Zambia ]
Ba Kazonga, you have become dull, such that your work in statistics is becoming trash. you see. in china were such myotokaz are coming from, roads are much better than the ruts we have back home. your home village in eastern inclusive. bushe you dont see how difficult it is just to drive thru kaunda square stage 1 in lusaka let alone ku kapisha or ku fitobaula uko ku chingola? look at how the mongu kalabo road is and tell me the status of non major roads. UBUTUTU MULEKE. Ati nalichita “research on how the mobile hospitals had been used to deliver quality health care to the people in countries where the system had been implemented”
better make permanent structures in all districts and continue expanding. one way is to look at settlements and rather than being rigid in terms of environemental issues such is impacts of building closer to pipo, hospitals strategically placed can help out than stacking every building pa boma. go and put up a two roomed structure bigger than your mobile hospital and let it be manned permanently. one is what happens when a person dies in the mobile hospital. will there be some “sign” to put the dead?
Kazonga is just defending his job. mobile hospitals are a mess. Who is going to be servicincing those mobile hospitals ‘ vehicles. Those millions could be channelled to the improvement of cureent hospitals and clinics which are in tatas
A challenge to Dr Kazonga,
Why doesn’t he give us the proper facts regarding these hospitals? We have been consistently asking the Govt to give us a cost benefit analysis of these things. Fr Henriot wrote a very enlightening article with serious questions in it. No one has bothered to answer them. It is not the Opposition’s duty to point out the benefits of these things. It is the Govt’s!
Kazonga couldn’t be bothered to even explain the benefits in his reply, and he expects us to take him seriously. Seriously!
A few days ago I saw a hilarious cartoon which summarised the inadequacies of the mobile hospitals. A man pushing a sick relative on a wheelbarrow gets to the mobile hospital site sweating and tired only to be told the hospital has just driven off.
I laughed but the message struck a chord.
#5 wantekunya yewe
Those are not hospitals or clinics. They are ambulances! If they were hospitals, what happens when a patient is admitted? The hospital would be full and they couldn’t possibly accommodate more than one patient at a time.
$53M white elephant! what research did he do? I do not if its politics or stealing which blinds people. They have failed to run already established medical centres and they hope to run mobile hospitals with their enourmous demands!
pipo will pretend to ignorant when it suits them yet these aliens know too well that in countries they have sought sanctuary in mobile clinics do exist. we want satas wife who is a specialist in diseases that affect women to go round the country and attend to our mothers in villages instead of just attending to the rich and famous in lusaka. Satas wife cannot be posted to lundazi permanently but surely she can go spend one week to treat ama fibroids, cancers etc. this is not for you aliens and town dwellers btu remote zambia
I dont understand this fuss about mobile hospitals. These are there to supplement the present structures and the ongoing expansion of the health services. While not every clinic will have a cancer testing machine,, CD4 testing machine or x ray services, the mobile clinics can periodically provide these services accross the country. Yes the road network is a mess. But there are a lot of places that are accessible and stand to benefit. If it cant get to Kalabo, then it can set up as closeto Kalabo as it will get
But then this typical of Zambians, they dont want to see progress or even attempts at it. Ver very pessimistic
These chaps are confused maningi.
Is Lusaka Times an extension of Times of Zambia or Daily mail? Of late most of the stories are coming from either Times of Zambia or Daily Mail, well I don’t really trust both papers. Coming to what Dr. Kazonga is saying, no mtter how hard they will try to justify, buying mobile clinics is a waste of money they would renovated the existing hospitals/clinics.
Uyu minister litako! # 9 and 10, you do not have to be a genius to forsee the problems that go with this scheme. These mobile clinics come with a complement of Chinese staff to operate the installed equipment. They will require accommodation and other amenities denied to our own health care providers. The arrangement will be costly to run. What is so difficult about being methodical? Do the roads first, besides, improved roads will benefit other sectors in rural Zambia. Try and shift your perspectives!
#10 Positivist pa zed- Keep on dreaming these things wont work. In China these are used in war zones for wounded soldiers.
So, does that mean that we can not get a first. Planes were only introduced by pipo at some point.
Computers existed from the 1960’s and telephones from much earlier, now dont we have mobile phnes and the internet.
yes there is always a possibility of failure but there is always need to try alternative ways of doing things
9 kalinosky petr,
I have never seen an ambulance referred to as a hospital. This is like calling a spoon a spade. In many countries you may find mobile hospital unit (also referred to as field hospitals). These are quite large and either composed of several large tents, long trailers or large water vessels depending on location. The vehicles in question do not even have enough space to carry a desirable number of medical practitioners to attend to patients.
I contend that the $53M could have been better spent building several health centres in remote locations (or perhaps revamping existing ones).
Rogue trader good observation> i Guess the physicall size will depend on the equipment that it will carry and of course the actual activities it is intended to carry out.
#15 Positivist pa zed- Phones and computers became smaller so that we can carry them around. You telling us that hospitals should also become smaller? If so are patients also going to become ant size? What is the point of this mobile hospital to park in Mansa Central because the road to Matanda is impassible?
Size is only one concern. However if the mobile hospital can reach Sesheke, Chipata, Mongu and provide a service then it is achieving its objective. If it cant reach Mansa Central but can reach other districts in the area then some thing has been achieved. If the road to Mansa central is impassable then there will be similar problems faced in upgrading the hospitals there and given the wide expanse of Zambia, this may not be resolved now. However the people of Mansa central can travel to the nearest accessible point for services. The way I would love you to think of it is if you were given these mobile hospitals and asked to run them, and you chose to put your best effort to it. how would you go about it???
#19 do you even know these places u are mentioning? Sesheke Chipata Mongu and Mansa central are not remote and they all have hospitals and several clinics. Do your geography and mention places that really need the mobile hospitals.
a mobile clinic or hospital isnt a house on wheels its simply a van or truck like an air ambulance or indeed road ambulance. Ask sata he has been on an air ambulance before which took him to joburg and hence he is still breathing bcos of same mobile hospital. you simply need technique and a few tools to do mobile work. we had mobile dental clinics mobile xray depts. I guess ignorance and politics by disgruntled kaponya tonga party who will never ever rule this country bcos God loves us he can never allow bums to ruin beautiful zambia with majority peace loving citizens abashala we shall rule on their behalf they can continue making noise. boma ya RB ni boma with a heart
# 19 KCI ,Ok lets look Eastern Province southern and western province
First Eastern, The road to Chipata is fine, this means you can access parts of Luangwa, Nyimba, Katete, Petauke and maybe even Chipata. I have been on the road to Mfuwe and the Government will shortly tar it. however it is stil passable> I do not know about the roads to chama and Lundazi
Western province. – the road to Mongu is ok and as of 2006 so was the road to Sesheke, this means you can access Kaoma. Challenges are with Kalabo, Lukulu and Shangombo, though I can confirm that parts of Shangombo are someties accessible ( nangweshi nd sioma area)
Southern province. The least accesible provinces are Iteshi Itesh ( though Government is working on the road) Gwembe and Sinazongwe
# 19 KCI And i must add that the mobile clinics can make available facilities not found in these areas ( chipata Sesheke etc) that are not remote and take these services to other less serviced places. I feel that an idea should not be shot down because we do not like the initiator.
For the love of this country, lets all work on getting the best out of everything
in one of my contributions on this topic i gave an example as follows: if you own a mobile phone in an area without a cellular network, you will not benefit from owning a phone. Similarly, without a good road network, our rural folk (who are the target group) will not derive the intended benefits. There are pre-requisites to be sorted out first. Areas serviced by brick and mortar clinics do not need these costly contraptions, what they need is expansion and better equipment. We have too many people who are refusing to think!
23
Positivist pa zed NO AMOUNT OF JUSTIFICATION FOR THESE WHITE EKEFANTS WILL DO.
24
Squealer – WHERE EVER YOU ARE GOD BLESS YOU
Kalinoski and Positivist,
there seems to be a gaping chasm in the knowledge you have about these hospitals and the idea most Zambians have about them. You are describing all these nice features that they have, and yet most of us think that they are just glorified ambulances. In fact, some of your posts confirm this (you have compared them to flying doctor services and air ambulances which just give short term relief until a permanent hospital is reached)
For USD4m each, the Govt needs to be more forthcoming about the kind of vehicles they are buying, and the equipment on board. Asking us to have faith is too much. I believe this decision was not made lightly. Govt should show us the CB Analysis that was done to convince us that these things are indeed in our best interests
Excuse my earlier mistake. These things will actually cost USD6m each. In local terms, this translates to K 30 Billion each! We want to buy vehicles worth K30bn? What the hell will be packed in these things? We need a better justification than the one being offered by the not-so-honourable minister!
SIMPLE.
TAKE THE WHEELS OFF THEM AND CALL THEM HOSPITALS.
BUY ONE FOR EVERY 30KM RADIUS IN THE COUNTRY.
Those things cannot move in any of the roads in Chadidza were Kazonga Comes from.
Not even in Mulobezi constituence as the money meant for roads in Mulobezi has been MickBengad by the PM of the constituence. In Nyakutwa village dont mention it because u will turned into RupiBand. Ho, ho,ho. Even the Ministero of spoksperson and long NOSE cannot manage to breth when he is in that hospital.