Africa-Press – Zambia. In a recent interview on Diamond TV’s “COSTA” program, former Health Minister and Patriotic Front (PF) Presidential Candidate, Hon. Dr Chitalu Chilufya, spoke out about the state of the country’s health system and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr Chilufya lamented the shortage of drugs in public hospitals and the collapsed supply chain, stating that it is “immoral” for the government to continue denying the issue. “If Zambians themselves are saying they are being given prescriptions and they have no medicines and they see their relatives die, if the doctors themselves who are working 24 hours in health institutions are saying there is no medicine, if the NGOCC who have done an independent assessment are saying there is no medicine, where is the government getting the information, is it the private hospitals where there are drugs?” he questioned.
The former Minister also highlighted the discrepancy between the supply chain of medicines under the PF government and the current collapsed system. “The supply chain of medicines under the PF government cannot be compared to this collapsed…. One, if you just look at the period between January 2021 and August 2021, I will tell you that the average availability of medicines was between 75% to 85%,” he said.
In addition to the problems with the supply of medicines, Dr Chilufya warned of a surge in Covid-19 cases in Zambia. “Zambia is not yet out of the hoodwinks, Zambia is on the brink of the Covid outbreak. And what we are seeing in the recent past by the dashboard, with 8% positivity with minimal testing, with seven deaths just in the last 10 days, I am going to tell you from experience that if we are testing the right numbers, you would see that there are many more Covid cases than is being reported. Probably more deaths than being reported,” he stated.
The former Minister emphasized the need for increased testing and honest reporting of data, citing the PF government’s record of testing over 10,000 cases and accurately reporting mortality rates. “We were honest with the public in terms of data, we were not only looking at facility deaths we were also looking at BIDs….and therefore we were recording mortality honestly. I am not predicting a surge, I am saying there is a surge right now and I am predicting a worst situation,” he said.
In light of these issues, Dr Chilufya called on the government to take emergency measures to address the shortages of medicines and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It is important that government embarks on emergency measures to bring in medicines in the country to support health service delivery, to support the emergency response to Covid, to strengthen health security,” he said. He also warned that the economic recovery program will not succeed if the government does not invest adequately in the health security of the nation.
The former Minister also urged the public to take precautions such as mask-wearing in certain places. “When we win in health, all of us win… You cannot reduce from testing 12,000 to testing 2,000,” he said.
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