President Rupiah Banda says government will apply innovative approaches to health challenges around the country so that the number of patients without access to quality health care can be reduced.
President Banda said this in Kitwe’s Ndeke Township yesterday where he commissioned mobile health services and the Ndeke mini hospital.
He said mobile health units will serve Zambians in rural and remote parts of the country as they will be able access affordable, cost effective and quality health services.
The President said government is working hard to reduce the distance that people, especially in rural areas walk to access health services.
He stated that the mobile health units are specifically designed for areas with rough terrain and poor road network, noting that in these areas, the target population will find the units very beneficial.
He said 125 health post are being constructed countrywide noting that this is in keeping his promise that government will construct district hospitals in all districts by the year 2016.
President Banda said now inevitable for government to recruit and provide qualified staff to treat patients at these health posts.
He said government has since allocated K52 billion to the Ministry of Health to employ different categories of health workers.
He said government intends to increase the intake of students in health institutions by expanding learning facilities and opening new ones.
The President said this measure will increase the number of health workers in the country.
He also disclosed that plans are underway to soon open a second medical school on the Copperbelt province very soon.
President Banda also said the massive investment pumped into the health sector has paid off as the health of Zambians continues to significantly improve.
He said government has managed to improve the under-five mortality rate from 168 deaths per 1,000 lives births to 119, the infant mortality rate from 90 deaths per 1,000 live births to 70 while the maternal mortality rate has also dropped.
The mortality rate resulting from malaria has also fallen by 60 per cent as reported by health facilities.
ZANIS reports that the mobile health units and the Ndeke village mini hospital that President Banda commissioned will serve a population of 15, 606.
ZANIS
Somehow, the president is lying. When launching the clinics, he announced that the mobile clinics would service 8 million zambians. Let’s assume that one mobile clinic was launched on the CB. If it is servicing 16k people, then 7 clinics can only service about 100,000. The mobile clinic saga is one of the greatest frauds ever perpetuated on zambians, and someone should be made accountable
You travel all the way from kitwe to come and commision a slab..A SLAB
I love statistics, but I hate it when they are politicized. The improvement in mortality rates this man quotes are directly attributable to foreign efforts on anti-malaria, ARV availability and accessibilty and the reduction in HIV vertical transmission. These foreign efforts have further been frustrated by our own government’s corrupt ways and lack of accountability. So you know this man is counting on an ignorant (and I mean that in a non-deragotary way) to mislead us into thinking him and his well paid followers have done a thing for the people. Truth is, a 10% mortality rate (under-reported of course) in my opinion is sad for the anti-biotic age. He should have stated his disappointment in the fact that while the lazy politicians get richer, the working Zambians suffer tremendously.
How are these mobile clinics operating? Do they go looking for patients in markets? There is plenty of land to build structures, why mobile? do we have nomads in Zambia? Zambian politicians are either born stupid or they learnt to be one!
How are these mobile clinics operating? Do they go looking for patients in markets? There is plenty of land to build structures, why mobile? do we have nomads in Zambia? Zambian politicians are either born stu pid or they learnt to be one!
#5 Zambolina, first you have to understand the geography of this country, get a mental grasp of how large 750,000 square kilometres of land is, the vast majority of which is rural, consider the sparse population distribution. KK’s government faced this dilemma of a small population dotted around this vast expanse of land that is Zambia. He tried the concept of village regrouping, so that he could provide services to larger groupings of people, given the limited resources available to go round. It failed. If you are a town dweller and your mind cannot fathom or picture the difficulties of providing services to our rural population, just keep quiet and let those in the know do the job.
politicians are like diapers they need to be changed often exactly for the same reason. Zambia has one of the worst roads in Africa if not in the world,the question is how are they going to reach the people in the remote areas who badly need health-care? the roads are impassable, let change these guys because they have taken Zambians for a ride.