Government says it will setup more University Teaching Hospitals (UTHs) across the country in a bid to decongest Lusaka’s UTH, which is the country’s only national referral hospital.
Health Deputy Minister Christopher Mulenga said government intends to create UTHs along the line of rail before considering extending the facilities to provincial centres.Mr Mulenga explained that government will soon start the process with the upgrading of Kitwe Central Hospital, Ndola Central Hospital and Livingstone General Hospital into full fledged University Teaching Hospitals.
ZANIS reports that the minister said this after touring some construction works of health centres in Milenge district of Luapula province.
He stated that after the completion of Kitwe Central Hospital, Ndola Central Hospital and Livingstone General Hospitals, government will then extend the programme to other provincial centres in the country.
Mr Mulenga said it was the intention of the PF government to upgrade some current General Hospitals to Central Hospitals so as to bring health services to the people as close as possible.He explained that the rationale behind the programme was to provide and spread health expertise and skills to other facilities across the country.
Currently, the country has only one UTH in Lusaka, which is overwhelmed with demand of health cases from around the country.He also disclosed that government plans to upgrade St. Pauls Mission Hospital in Nchelenge district to a General Hospital when financial resources permit and the programme would be done in phases.
And Luapula Province Minister, Benson Kapaya has disclosed that cholera has broken out in Chiengi district.
Brigadier General Kapaya said the district has so far recorded one case and health experts have already started testing samples of water to verify evidence of cholera.
Meanwhile, Mr Mulenga says there is urgent need to revise the current tender procedures if developmental programmes are to be done quickly as this has direct bearing on development.Mr Mulenga has since called for the immediate revision of the tender procedures which has been in place for years saying most government projects are being delayed to start off.
He wondered why the most recommendations by various parliamentary committees have not been incorporated to quicken the process.
Mr Mulenga noted that most of government projects have taken long to be done due to tender procedures hence affecting the smooth execution.
And Mr Mulenga was infuriated when he discovered that most construction works by some named Zambian contractors have stalled.
He also said that PF government is in a hurry to develop the country in line with its 2011 electoral promises and warned it will not hesitate to engage Chinese Construction firms whom he praised to be doing a commendable job.
Mr Mulenga said he would suggest to Cabinet to consider just allowing Chinese firms to get main construction works while Zambian firms to be subcontracted but should work closely with Chinese firms.
[ZANIS]
Lovely ! Good idea.Maybe i might come back and be a lecturer in one of institutions if the money will be good enough.Thumbs up bane.
Obviously the only plan they have us ti upgrade an existing hospital. Please biuld!
joke of the day. You first sort out urban clinics and rural health centres before dreamimg big you chaps. many people still dont have access to basic health services. too much day dreaming.
KK built good hospitals.
First of all it is important to give credit where it is due-having such ambitions deserves credit and appreciation, I therefore salute you Sir!! but before we start duplicating hospitals and learning institutions maybe we need to ensure that the ones we have are working well. the key to having a University Teaching Hospital is to have competent teachers who are already lacking, they are going out of the country for greener pastures or joining the local NGOs to practice public health. We may end up with jobless half-baked graduates like the those flocking into our country from eastern Europe and similar places. Please reconsider, napapata
You have only 3 and half years remaining before we kick you out. Better concentrate on what you have already started. Stop dreaming. We don’t want a situation where you leave government with piles of foreign debt because of borrowing money for silly programmes.
Bitter chaps! Everything that PF is doing is rubbish in your eyes!!!!!! You think you are more intelligent that PF? We shall see where your frustration will take you!!!! Good plan PF! Please continue with your programmes as promised during elections! Just a year and a half in office, your works are seen!!!!!
Other were just eating up the national funds. Today you have real men with original ideas meant for national development. Lets do more from where KK left in the 70s. We still have copper, we have no liberation struggles to support. Letrs just build this nation with selfless ambitions. Forward PF. The rest niba Ngwele.
I can see the nice structure in this picture and a good road. But we need the nice walkway for pedestrians there. Majority of people use that dusted walkway and few use the nice tarred road. Improve the confidence of the pedestrian too.
do they actually mean “University teaching hospitals” or “referral hospitals?” It makes sense if the latter is the case. As for the former, there are only two more medical schools, so where will the other hospitals get their staff and students from?
This is true. give it to serious people, THE CHINES CAN DO WOUNDERS for sure
@ Number 9 Floyd Chitalu in Chinese cities all the walkways in the city and I mean all are all paved. You cannot find a single speck of dust. You can literally walk from one end of the city to the other without your shoes becoming covered in dust or dirt. Yet in Zambia we have abundant building resources but we have failed to beautify our cities and public places. What a shame!
Promises after promises……..when are promises going to be replaced by action?
KCH is a great hospital. Please tar the walkway! It has had potholes for years!
KCH is a colonial structure. That is why it looks that way. By the way that is an old picture.
A University Teaching Hospital is affiliated to a University. It graduates medical personnel. UTH Lusaka is affiliated to the UNZA Ridgeway Campus School of Medicine. Are we going to have medical Students at all the proposed Teaching Hospitals? A Teaching Hospital is NOT necessarily a good thing. It is a place of trial and error for medical students at the expense of the patient. Am sure the minister meant to say ‘Referral Hospitals’.
Whenever I hear, ‘will do this, will do that’ i remember the barotseland agreement.
I will come and run one of them I am a genius
oh crap …here we go again. UTH in lusaka barely functions and you tell us you will build more? What a joke …
Keep fooling your people …
What a joke …fix the current institution before you start even thinking about the second or third …day dreaming
What a joke …fix the current institution before you start even thinking about the second or third …day dreamers…
In your dreams…
i hope te filoto ukuwama.anyway good idea.implement.
#21 I can assure you that ifi filoto.
Why not build your own structures, instead of realigning existing ones? PF for once please do something meaningful. New structures and institutions please!
The illiterates in PF have NO idea on the meaning or concept of a ‘UNIVERSITY’. The floating of the idea of transforming Chalimbana Teachers College and Palabana Animal Training Centre in Lusaka, and some colleges in “Muchinga Province”, as well as a Teachers College in Kitwe is a misguided short-term political propaganda machinery.
A well established university is defined by the quality of Lecturers well versed in their respective academic disciplines and re-known for conducting credible research. A potential student dreams of admission at Cambridge, Cape Town, CBU, Oxford, Harvard, Unza or Wits because of the high qualities of academic and research staff in such isntitutions.
The Minister of Education must counsel his colleagues on the true meaning of the University.
Some people have dreams and they wonder why!(like UPND).Others have dreams and they say why not!(like PF)Development starts with a dream and a vision and later turned into reality.
@ 25 observer, would you kindly tell me how many hospitals MMD built in 20 years they were in power aprt from Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital ?
2 jERRY sANDUSKY,
That is why we elected King Cobra he is up for it and will do an excellent Job , look what he did to that smal town Lusaka when he was governor , just governor
Dr.Mulenga,please do your research before you commit yourself.The Zambian health system today is non existent.What we need to do is to turn all the hospitals you mentioned into full fledged referral hospitals with all specialists(Physicians,Pediatricians,Gynaecologists,specialist Surgeons,Orthopedic surgeons,Urologists,Oncologists,Maxillofacial specialists etc)simultaneously equip these referral centers with modern equipment and drugs.The only hospital which qualifies to be a teaching hospital is Ndola Central Hospital by virtue of the copper belt school of medicine.Please stop exciting people and get down to work.The clock is ticking,oops I don’t mean the MMD clock which stopped at 11 oclock since 1991.
The Government is not fair sometimes. Most Chinese contractors too complain of delayed payments by the Government for the jobs executed. They are lucky in that they are able to borrow from Chinese banks as opposed to their Zambian counterparts who, when the certificate is taken for payment, they are told Government has no money to pay. As a result, they look innefficient and as failures. Hospi
tals can be upgraded, but the bottom line is that Government must ensure that it has a formidable financial resource base with which to maintain its workforce. Failure to which, such hospitals will simply be white elephants.