The government has dismissed with immediate effect from the civil service a nurse at Kawaya health post in Lukulu district, the Western province for gross negligence.
Public Service Management Division (PSMD) Permanent Secretary, Boniface Chimbwali, has confirmed the development to Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS).
Mr Chimbwali explained that Chiimalizeni Tembo, a registered nurse at the center, refused to go and attend to a pregnant woman who ended up delivering by the roadside while the clinic was a few metres away.
“The incident occurred last night when I was on my way to Lukulu district with my entourage on official duties when we found relatives helping a woman to deliver,” Mr Chimbwali explained.
Mr Chimbwali further said that the officer had no excuse not to follow the woman after her husband rushed to the clinic to call on him, adding that the baby has since died 30 minutes after arriving at the district hospital due to asphyxiation.
“To me what Mr Tembo did was gross misconduct which is a dismissible offense, though he has all the rights to defend himself so that the right procedure is followed,” Mr Chimbwali said.
He has since warned civil servants to take their jobs very seriously when rendering services to the people at all times especially when lives are endangered.
And Western Province Permanent Secretary Daniel Bukali has described the incidence as unfortunate considering that the affected family were meters away from the health facility.
“To me, that officer must leave the civil service and I will not allow negligence from workers under my watch, ” Mr Bukali warned.
Wakosama! Does he even know how it feels to loose a pregnancy, let alone a baby? PS sir, it should not just end on dismissing him, let him be dragged to court so he can pay through his nose, sha!
Abigail Mpofu Mr chimbwali this side explained ?
Nursing is a calling. Not for frustrated characters. Let her go and take her frustration elsewhere. Good move so that others learn, especially those somewhere I won’t mention
The right to be heard….
Some people think child birth is a joke. The nurse deserves the consequences of his actions.. May others learn from it.
in Zambia it has become a tendency for nurses to mistreat patients especially will be mothers, something must be done to control such
Chris C EM l agree with with u totally. Am a nurse myself but the attitude being displayed by some nurses is unbelievable. I have seen happen with my family, not even long ago. We have to start from somewhere, every nurse and employers who run these facilities should take responsibility.
Florence Chilufya true and sorry to generalize some are really good, like one elderly i came across at mahatma Gandhi clinic in Livingstone
Finally her village people have succeeded in making her jobless..
Sam Chidi he aided that himself.
Wen women go for antenatal,they are encouraged by health personnel to go in advance wen their time is due .
So for me negligence was on the part of the husband,family and woman herself coz labour pains don’t just start there and then to deliver.
Chimbwali don’t don’t be rushy in yr judgment.
That nurse should be blacklisted in addition to being fired
Is that nurse a midwife? It says do not put yourself and others in dangerous stuation if you don’t have the competency. In Zambia lets learn to listen to the other side of the story before we jump into conclusion.
Phyllis Mangowa this Nurse needs help cos this issue concerns what is in GNC professional code of conduct , what does it say,are nurses covered to outside the premises,was the nurse in question a midwife….! the Nurse needs professional help….!
It’s true sisy we need to do something to help the nurse out for unfair dismissal and them bullies who harass p?ofessionals.
Beatrice Phiri, let the GNC also do their on this matter so that we know the truth
Mahatma Gandhi clinic in Livingston that elderly nurse deserve a promotion coz he is a good nurse
It’s difficult to make a fair comment because it seems Chimbwali wasn’t the right person to take action on the culprit, no wonder he has mentioned the right to be heard. Most people in Western province have an attitude towards workers that don’t hail from there. There might be a story here because the culprit is a male nurse
It’s difficult to make a fair comment because it seems Chimbwali wasn’t the right person to take action on the culprit, no wonder he has mentioned the right to be heard. Most people in Western province have an attitude towards workers that don’t hail from there. There might be a story here because the culprit is a male nurse
Women please when labour starts go to the health facility as soon as possible.Its takes more than 6 hours to deliver when labour starts.
Was she given the right to be heard?
Ok sometimes it’s difficulty to comment on some issues because it’s only one side of the story
Though negligence is a misconduct and warrants displine , let’s hear from his side of the story.
Trying to imagine how far was the patient to the facility
Did the nurse have any patient at facility that she was attending to
Was she safe to go outside the facility it was at what time .
Are healthy services extended to community
Why did the mother wait until she was in advanced stage of labor
Labor has never been an emergency?
Anyway the ps should hold his fire and discuss issues
My view as well that action by the ps can easily be overturned by the courts of law basing on the issues you raised.
Very good example sir job well-done
Tembo was in wrong career. May need retraining to get into corrections department.
Typical pf cadres who use exam leakage from grade 1 up to college/university . Don’t expect such characters to perform miracles in their respective fields. Pathetic foolz.
Thanks very much for thy stop you have taken so far ,
Thy government is paying such nurses ,alot of money ,on top doing nothing in service , which is very painful , losing life , while there their ,let her take her frustration else ,it is good she been kicked out ,akubomba uku
Please take stock of all nurses in Zambia especially those in Lusaka. The majority of them are frustrated people whose aim is to have a source of income and not to serve the sick people. My sister nearly died in labour as the nurses watched and laughed while she was in bitter difficult as she struggled to deliver. They even chased mum but they could not help. By God’s mercy she delivered and immediately named the baby Waluse – God is merciful. This is the killing crop of nurses Zambia is producing. Please something should be done asap.
I also went to clinic and we found officers, my son had diarrhoea and was vomiting at the same time.
We arrived at the clinic at 08hrs, surprisingly around 11hrs they told us to go outside and wait apparently they said they wanted to SWEEP the clinic.
This should be a lesson to other nurses koz it’s too much. They don’t treat patients the way they are supposed to be treated.
This nurse probably has another business outside his civil service job. A funeral parlor????
This Tembo is a tribalist that is why he did not go out to help a Lukulu resident. These are incompetent PF cardres doted all over the coutry, only serving PF interests.
And PF ministers say civil servants must notrely on jobs. They should run businesses while they work.
Good job i hope he never gets hired in the private sector also very stupid…waste of my taxes
Hachi Tuba Sichalwe young man how are you doing? Long time!
PLEASE GET THIS NURSE A GOOD LAWYER. Here we are again acting on emotions. Where is due process? She has no duty of care to any person who is outside the place at which she is employed and has not been registered for health care. This is what we call Good Samaritan work in medicine and the medical or health practitioner is NOT OBLIGATED to look after a person outside their working environment, even if it was within walking distance to the hospital. Who would take the blame if something went wrong? This is an emotional issue NOT a disciplinary issue. I would argue wrongful dismissal here.
Firstly The PS is serving the PF government so to say the nurse is a PF cadre is only showing that you are an opposition cadre so let’s stop un necessary politics. The other side of the story is needed for us to have a better judgement. Indeed a nurse is employed to serve but to what extent outside the clinic should they be called to go and attend to the patients otherwise what culture are we generating. I can imagine one nurse on duty and two families needing the same nurse to attend to patients in their homes while the health post need the same staff for emergencies . Are you not going to say the nurse left the clinic to go and attend to special people. Suppose someone even dies in the clinic while the nurse is out attending to patients outside the clinic. Let me remind you that the PS…
Why is everyone assuming that the nurse is a woman. This nurse, according to the story is a man. Is he a trained midwife? If the pregnancy was complicated and the baby died while this nurse was assisting at the delivery, imagine what the villagers would do to this man nurse! He could be beaten to death. He was safer at the clinic than in the Bush.
Good that this non committed and non performing nurse has been fired, that is what we should be doing to all non performers including the PF which has lamentably failed. Please check economic stats. The decline was there even before covid.
@ Dr Ngoma. I totally agree with your sentiments! This man wants his 15 minutes of fame and totally outside of his functions, zoona Zambia ka?
We are all God’s people, liable to make mistakes, but surely a medically trained person would give assistance to anyone in distress no matter where they were! I hope a resulution can be found.
I wolud also mention the midwife at Sesheke District Hospital, he is good and committed to service delivery. Please kindly promote him as well.
The woman also is to blame why did she wait for labour to reach that stage of failing to reach the clinic sure. …all I know is that labour is not an emergency its gradual until pa chorus. Anyway kaya I wasn’t there
Rg you are right, ‘WOULD’ BUT NOT ‘SHOULD.’ You too can pass by a beggar and not give them a cent even if you have money. The President’s motorcade passes by many people who would like a ride to the same destination. A mechanic passes by a broken down vehicle. It is high time we stopped taking medical and health personnel for granted. They are employees not charity givers. The nurse would have helped the woman if she wanted to but she is not bound by any law to do this.
FWhen will we learn in Zambia that a nurse is not a casual worker,but a professional whose work condition is guided by a code of conduct and ethics,hence cannot leave her work environment to conduct a delivery on the street,imagine the baby died in his presence,the same people would have harmed him citing incompetence.fact is that He cannot be fired by a casual worker but the due process of the law will be undertaken.
The incident happened by the roadside and not at the health facility. How did you expect this nurse to leave the facility to go and attend to someone in the bush?
The nurse cannot be held be responsible for the death of the baby imagine the nurse going to help the mother on the streets what equipment and instruments was he going to use to resuscitate the baby?,what environment was he going to be in?who was going to protect the nurse if he was attacked? For every health worker personal safety comes first even if its samaritan help