By Daily Revelation Editor
Health minister Elijah Muchima says he will investigate to find out why some health facilities are using candles and staff’s personal phone torches when administering services during night shifts on account of the ongoing loadshedding in the country.
Muchima said he would do so because the government had directed against loadshedding critical institutions such as the health centres.
He said this in response to questions by Daily Revelation which has established that apart from the loadshedding impacting several health facilities, water blues at some of these facilities were also an issue for instance, as witnessed when clinic staff were seen drawing water from outside the health facilities parameters in buckets.
The continued risk in these health centres in terms of operating without electricity cannot be over-emphasised, due to the nature of hospitals in terms of saving life. There are children being born everyday in labour wards, and the chances of error on the part of the health workers cannot be ruled out especially, when handling complicated situations in the absence of electricity. There are those in these health centres who need the aid of oxygen for instance to help save life, plus many other operations being carried out. Simply put, it isn’t just safe and condusive to conduct medical services in an environment without electricity.
It is good that Muchima is saying he will investigate, and we hope he means his word. If he proceeds to investigate, we are not just sure how many investigations he is going to carry out, because in our view, this is one matter that should have already been taken care of by the authorities tasked with ensuring a constant flow of electricity in hospitals and clinics. If that has not been done, we wonder why our ‘methodical’ government has not taken charge to hold Zesco managing director Victor Mapani and his management to task for not doing so. It is not as if this loadshedding period started yesterday, when we all have been grappling with this problem since around January 2024. If eight months later, several health institutions in the heart of government, Lusaka, are still facing blackouts, we shudder to imagine the desperate situation around the country, especially in the countryside.
Despite how critical the energy situation may be, it is just unacceptable that the situation in a health facility should deteriorate to a level where health staff are forced to improvise by using candles and their personal phone torches to administer services to the patients. We therefore hope Muchima will undertake to handle this matter ernestly without paying the usual political talk which politicians usually indulge in without any tangible outcomes whatsoever, while situations deteriorate further.
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By Daily Revelation Editor
Health minister Elijah Muchima says he will investigate to find out why some health facilities are using candles and staff’s personal phone torches when administering services during night shifts on account of the ongoing loadshedding in the country.
Muchima said he would do so because the government had directed against loadshedding critical institutions such as the health centres.
He said this in response to questions by Daily Revelation which has established that apart from the loadshedding impacting several health facilities, water blues at some of these facilities were also an issue for instance, as witnessed when clinic staff were seen drawing water from outside the health facilities parameters in buckets.
The continued risk in these health centres in terms of operating without electricity cannot be over-emphasised, due to the nature of hospitals in terms of saving life. There are children being born everyday in labour wards, and the chances of error on the part of the health workers cannot be ruled out especially, when handling complicated situations in the absence of electricity. There are those in these health centres who need the aid of oxygen for instance to help save life, plus many other operations being carried out. Simply put, it isn’t just safe and condusive to conduct medical services in an environment without electricity.
It is good that Muchima is saying he will investigate, and we hope he means his word. If he proceeds to investigate, we are not just sure how many investigations he is going to carry out, because in our view, this is one matter that should have already been taken care of by the authorities tasked with ensuring a constant flow of electricity in hospitals and clinics. If that has not been done, we wonder why our ‘methodical’ government has not taken charge to hold Zesco managing director Victor Mapani and his management to task for not doing so. It is not as if this loadshedding period started yesterday, when we all have been grappling with this problem since around January 2024. If eight months later, several health institutions in the heart of government, Lusaka, are still facing blackouts, we shudder to imagine the desperate situation around the country, especially in the countryside.
Despite how critical the energy situation may be, it is just unacceptable that the situation in a health facility should deteriorate to a level where health staff are forced to improvise by using candles and their personal phone torches to administer services to the patients. We therefore hope Muchima will undertake to handle this matter ernestly without paying the usual political talk which politicians usually indulge in without any tangible outcomes whatsoever, while situations deteriorate further.
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