“A better story would be about whether or not she’s in a coffin making business not this fantasy that it’s theft by public servant that’s causing the shortage of medicines.”
By Editor In Chief | WD.
Lusaka, May 11 – Health Minister, Hon. Sylvia Masebo, says reports of some senior workers in her Ministry misunderstanding government’s initiative on the 20% NAPSA package has led to the Ministry of Health losing 80% of essential medicines through self gratification by these long serving health workers who happen to own pharmacies near public health institutions, leaving most institutions with only 20% which has strained the health system extensively.
She was narrating her story when she paid a courtesy call on Copperbelt Province Minister, Elisha Matambo, in Ndola who kept wondering whether he was listening to an imposter or Hon. Masebo needed medical attention herself which would be an impossible task under the circumstances.
[ays_poll id=4]
Ms. Masebo further said, she found it disheartening that some politicians were always quick to politicize the challenges her Ministry is facing such as having an incompent Minister without thinking of the negative psychological impact their statements could have on the patients who may not have relatives to take care of their dependents when the inevitable, under the circumstances, happens.
But a concerned Copperbelt Province Minister Elisha Matambo just called for the completion of all health facilities in the province whose works have stalled following the cancellation of many contracts after workers at their construction sites were spotted in overalls with images depicting their clearing machines called bulldozers which understandably annoyed the system.
◾Editor’s Comments…
Instead of telling us what she knows about public health workers who own pharmacies near public health institutions, Hon. Masebo must address the nation on whether or not she’s connected to the owners of coffin making businesses near the mortuaries at public health institutions because that’s the only story that would tally with her failure to accept that people are dying from curable diseases because of lack of essential medical supplies.
It’s barely two months when the former Health Minister, Hon. Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, narrated to the nation how he saved an epileptic man who he found convulsing along Chikwa Road after the patient was served with a prescription instead of his life saving drugs at Levy Mwanawasa Teaching Hospital, after walking all the way from John Laing.
“l am epileptic; however l haven’t taken medication for five days; l am walking home to John Laing, from Levy Mwanawasa hospital where l went this morning to seek care and medication; however l was just given a prescription to buy medicine; l don’t have any money; so l was walking home,” narrated the young man when he regained consciousness.
Dr. Chitalu Chilufya drove away with the patient to a nearest drug store and the rest, as they say, is history.
The sanctity of life is inviolable under any circumstances and Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, after that incident, just as what he has been singing about for months, urged government to abandon its cruel state of denial and deal with the drugs crisis immediately.
Allow Hon. Sylvia Masebo to seriously reflect on the questions Dr. Chitalu Chilufya posed which beg our honest answers as a collective:
▪️ How many citizens are convulsing, injuring themselves or falling in fires and burning or dying?
▪️ How many other chronic patients suffering from diabetes, hypertension, HIV/AIDS, etc, are suffering quietly or dying prematurely without getting the help from our hospitals?
▪️ For how long will the persistent drug shortages be ignored by Government; is life as sacred under this UPND regime which seems obsessed with political point-scoring?
Dr. Chitalu Chilufya has, on several fora, advised government to admit that its health system has collapsed.
He recently lamented on Diamond TV that people have continued to die from curable and manageable diseases due to lack of medicines in public health facilities.
“The supply chain has collapsed. There’s leadership failure and if we do not act, and act swiftly, we will lose more lives. It’s important that government embarks on emergency measures to bring in medicines in the country to support health service delivery to strengthen health security,” he said.
But as a response to this humble advice by, probably, the one of the best Health Ministers this country has ever had, Hon. Sylvia Masebo decided to quarantine several containers of essential medical supplies that arrived in the country, shortly after, for reasons known to herself.
Also Read: Suspected corruption quarantines essential drugs.
It’s is immoral, on the part of Hon. Sylvia Masebo, to dispute the user of the public health service and the people that work in these public health facilities on the position of medicines.
Hon. Sylvia Masebo is another proof that President Hakainde Hichilema lacks leadership because leadership is the ability to identify and put those with the technical know-how and ability in key positions needing such expertise.
Is Hon. Sylvia Masebo the best candidate President Hakainde Hichilema could find for such a sensitive Ministry?
The nation has only been saved by the fact that despite the UPND as the main opposition political party opposing the NHIMA programme, former Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, insisted it was essential to implement Universal Health Coverage. And true to the word that the UPND was ignorant about the purpose of NHIMA, it has been taken away from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Labour.
You can now follow Woodpecker’s Digest on Twitter and Facebook!
©2022 Woodpecker’s Digest Inc.
Putting news into perspective
