By Isaac Zulu
Kapiri Mposhi district commissioner Francis Hasalama has castigated health personnel at Kapiri Mposhi District Hospital after a 29-year-old expectant mother and her unbord baby died after medical personnel could not attend to her on time.
The visibly annoyed Hasalama said he has been receiving reports about poor health service delivery at the hospital and theft of medical supplies by health workers.
The maternal death has been blamed on the negligence by health workers at the health institution as they could allegedly not attend to the pregnant woman on time who was on referral from Kapiri Urban Clinic from 08:00 to around 14:00 hours.
The deceased has been identified as Isabel Mwiinga from Mulungushi University who was earlier admitted to Kapiri Urban Clinic.
And Kapiri Mposhi District Commissioner Francis Hasalama has castigated management at Kapiri Mposhi District Hospital for allegedly exhibiting poor health service delivery which resulted in the maternal death.
Hasalama said this when he visited the hospital following the report of the maternal death.
Hasalama, who was visibly annoyed, disclosed that his office has been receiving similar disturbing reports of poor health service delivery and theft of medical supplies at the hospital; adding that government will not allow such kind of behavior from the health workers to continue.
“Was there negligence or anything people who were there were observing and they are broken because they saw what happened? We call for seriousness,” he said.
Hasalama insisted that there is need to make some official transfers at both the District Health Office and hospital, saying some members of staff have developed a laissez-faire attitude towards work, thereby denting government’s efforts to provide health services to the people in the district.
But Hospital Labour Ward, Nurse In-charge Laura Sampa was at pains to explain to the district commissioner on what caused the maternal death.
Sampa explained that when the patient was first brought to the hospital she was put on observation as her Blood Pressure (BP) was low.
She disclosed that the hospital has a shortage of medical staff, adding that the doctor on duty had to attend to a more critical case before attending to the expectant mother who was admitted to the labour ward.
“From Urban Clinic the vitals were fine, the BP was fine but when she came here the BP was low. So when the doctor came to review her, he said she should be monitored with the fluid. The doctor tried and gave first priority to the case in theatre where the patient was bleeding and it was more critical,” Sampa said.
However, sister to the deceased, and family spokesperson, Tina Mwiinga has attributed the death of their relative and the unborn baby to negligence on the part of health workers at the hospital.
Mwiinga lamented that their relative was referred from Kapiri Urban Clinic to the district hospital as an emergency case but it took over four hours for her to be attended to.
