By
Paul Shalala in Ndola
 |
| Patients queing at Kanyama Clinic in Lusaka |
Long
queues at clinics and hospitals are a normal occurrence in Zambia, a country
that is plagued by various diseases such as HIV/AIDS, cholera and malaria.
The
lack of enough man power at health facilities is part of the problem that has
led to patients queuing at health facilities for long hours.
In
rural areas, the situation is even worse as patients walk several kilometers
from their villages to the clinic and spend more hours waiting to be attended
to.
Some
critically ill patients die on their way to the hospitals due to lack of proper
roads and ambulances in rural areas.
And
in some health facilities, there are no trained medical personnel to attend to
patients.
In
some areas, cleaners and office orderlies who are not trained in medicine,
attend to patients and give out prescriptions.
Currently,
Zambia has 1,500 doctors and has a shortage of 3,000 more.
At
the University Teaching Hospital, Zambia’s largest health referral center in
Lusaka, doctors are overwhelmed with work.
Some
give out appointments to patients six months or a year away.
This
situation has led to patients dying as they wait for their appointments.
And
some doctors have also started running their own private clinics to cash in on
the shortage of doctors.
According
to some patients, doctors give them long appointments or encourage them to visit
their private clinics where there are no queues and they can be attended to the
same day.
According
to the World Health Organisation, the normal doctor-patient ratio is 1 doctor
per 5,000 patients but Zambia has one of the most abnormal doctor-patient ratio
which now stands at 1 doctor per 12,000 patients.
At
present, Zambia only has two government run institutions that train doctors
plus a few private ones and their output is not enough to reduce the deficit in
the coming years.
The
University of Zambia and the Copperbelt University produce about 200 doctors
per year and at the rate at which these medical personnel seek greener pastures
abroad, the number of doctors in Zambia may not reach the required level.
To
try and mitigate this problem, the Zambian government and the Jewish Council of
Zambia have partnered to construct a school of medicine in the northern city of
Ndola which is projected to produce doctors on an annual basis.
The
School will be under the Kitwe-based Copperbelt University whose current School
of Medicine is squatting at the Ndola Central Hospital were there is inadequate
space for students.
The
US$5 million project has already progressed and is scheduled to be completed in
June 2015.
Sogecoa
Zambia Limited, the Chinese construction company which is constructing the
school, is scheduled to complete phase one of the project in June and hand it
over to government.
 |
| Professor Kasonde Bowa |
Dean
of the School of Medicine at the Copperbelt University Professor Kasonde Bowa
says it can take Zambia over 15 years to produce the 3,000 needed doctors if
nothing is done to improve the training of doctors.
“Currently,
the University of Zambia and Copperbelt University will take over a decade to
offset the deficit. But with the new school of university under construction,
it will only take less than 7 years to normalize the doctor-patient ratio,”
said Professor Bowa.
According
to the plans by the Copperbelt University, the School of Medicine will be
producing 250 doctors and 50 dentists on an annual basis.
This
effort, though a bit insignificant, will help beef up the numbers for medical
personnel in Zambia to reduce the long queues patients have become used to when
they are seeking medical attention.
