By Staff Reporter
People are really dying due to lack of drugs, just because we are not reporting it does not mean the situation is not dire, says Dr Brian Sampa.
And Dr Sampa said the Rota vaccine which is administered to children under the age of five, and is aimed at preventing serious illnesses in children has been missing for the past one year, something he said is happening for the first time in the history of the country.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Dr Sampa pleaded with President Hakainde Hichilema to immediately relieve Sylvia Masebo from the Ministry of Health before many lives are lost, saying she had base understanding on how to run such an important ministry.
“It’s true, from last year it (Rota vaccine) wasn’t administered. And it’s the first time we are having a challenge under Ministry of Health. That’s why when we say the minister has failed we mean that she has failed. Things are not okay, it’s the first time we are having shortages of such vaccines where children who are under five are not having the Rota vaccine. It’s happening for the first time,” Dr Sampa said.
He explained that the Rota virus was a virus which causes serious infections in children, saying therefore children are required to take during their under-five years.
Dr Sampa said the vaccine was aimed at making children to live healthy lives, therefore in the event where they were missing then they were prone to have certain types of infections.
“It’s happening for the first time and we are not supposed to tolerate such things from happening because it shows that this Ministry, the health system has already crumbled,” Dr Sampa said. “And I warned, I remember that was in March, that we were going to have this health sector collapse in terms of health systems. People didn’t take it seriously. Now we are here, this is October, you go to hospitals, that thing you are talking about is even one of the small things which are not there. But there are bigger things which are not in hospitals.”
Dr Sampa insisted that generally there were no drugs in health centers, mentioning things like IV fluids, needles. Syringes as people had to buy everything, saying the challenge was much bigger than the Rota vaccine as it was just a tip of the iceberg.
He said the management of the Ministry of Health was also something else, as all the provincial health directors have been demoted as they were sent to districts as district health directors for technical services.
“How do you have two district health directors in a district? That is redundancy. Two doctors are just sitting there, one technical, one administration all because you don’t want them to continue holding those positions having suspicion that they are PF. It’s like there is too much politics under Ministry of Health, which is not supposed to be the case,” Dr Sampa said, adding that that was one Ministry that should be devoid of politics.
Dr Sampa said the Ministry was just as good as a minister because the minister was a policy maker, and therefore when there was a wrong person in charge, the captain of the ship will control where the ship goes, whether it stops or it starts.
He said the changes that were happening were supposed to improve the Ministry but were happening to bring in the people who were aligned to a political party in power, which he said was wrong.
Dr Sampa said Masebo did not have the technical know how on how to run the Ministry of Health, and therefore even when appointing people she was just appointing loyalists and not people with the knowledge and that she was someone who could not be advised.
He said technocrats in the Ministry were complaining and have now stopped advising her as those who try to do so are labeled as PF cadres.
“So this is not about the system, it’s about the person there. Once you put the right person in charge that person is going to bring about good changes which are going to bring back the respect and trust people had for the Ministry,” Dr Sampa said, bemoaning that the Ministry has never been at this mediocre level before. “We were thinking that things won’t reach this far but now things have reached a level where even just the management of the Ministry is becoming a challenge. Last week people came to buy drugs here. How much drugs can you buy in K60,000? And she keeps saying we are giving them drug. She says they are giving them money for drugs meanwhile they give them a grant. A grant of K120,000 which is supposed to be shared the entire district. That same grant is supposed to give people services, they pay for water, electricity. That same grant. And she expects them to buy drugs from that. It’s not the job of clinics and hospitals to buy drugs. The people who are supposed to buy drugs it’s ZAMSA.”
Dr Sampa said there was a challenge as this required somebody who understands how the Ministry operates.
He said the lives of Zambians were no longer just at risk, because lives were being lost as the level of risk had already passed.
“There was a risk but now this time it’s disaster. Zambians are dying. And just because we are not reporting everyday somebody who is dying due to lack of drugs doesn’t mean people are not dying. Everyday, people have to go and buy simple things, even a a needle,” Dr Sampa said. “When we were growing up even just last year or the other year, we didn’t know the price of IV fluids, because nobody would buy IV fluids. Nobody would buy a syringe and a needle. But now you need to buy IV fluids. A mother is going to deliver, they are told in case you bleed out…”
Dr Sampa insisted that the situation was very bad, saying he may not have the actual numbers, but that the situation is very bad and most Zambians could not afford drugs, saying at the Cancer Diseases hospital the drugs were not available despite them being very expensive.
He said at the laboratory at the biggest referral hospital, UTH, it was always running out of the reagents, and when people talked they were labeled opposition cadres.
“She doesn’t understand how the Ministry of Health operates so she just sees everything as either green or red. So we don’t need to let a lot of people die, we can prevent all these deaths by just having the right person to run the Ministry,” said Dr Sampa. “She was at Masala last week on Friday. People showed her look at the pharmacy there are no drugs. What did she start doing? She started shouting at the people that you are stealing drugs. Where can people go with a truck and steal all the drugs in the hospital? But when we dug deep we found that look when they were given, you give people a bottle of Panado and expect it to last for the entire month. How? it’s impossible. So things are really so bad and we need the government to move in fast. The President should make the right changes now. It’s time. It’s more than a year and people can be appraised.”
