Africa-Press – Zambia. President Edgar Lungu has called on traditional leaders to open up land for the construction of health facilities under the robust construction project of 108 mini hospitals across the country.
The President made the appeal following some reported conflicts in some areas on the release of land for the construction of health facilities. President Lungu said the construction of health facilities was one of the interventions that government had embarked on to promote health services among Zambians.
President Lungu was speaking in Luanshya today when he inspected works on the on-going construction of a mini hospital at Section 25 Clinic in Mpatamato Township.
“ I am happy with the progress here but am appealing to our chiefs to give out more land for these projects, let there be no conflict when it comes to identifying areas for putting up hospitals, the hospitals are supposed to serve the communities not the chiefs alone,” he said.
President Lungu observed that there should be no politics on selecting the locations to put up the hospital but called on chiefs, community leaders and mayors to help in identifying areas where the people live so that there are short distances to be covered when accessing health care services.
“We know that there is a project of the construction of mini hospitals, it’s not only on paper but an ongoing project from what we are able to see here today, we will build 108 in phase one and will do even more in the future, this is one of the health interventions that we have put in place to ensure that all Zambians access health services as near as possible,” he noted.
Speaking earlier, the contractor, SUSCON Construction Solutions Area Manager, Yassah Azah said the company was contracted to build the 108 Mini Hospitals to be completed by September, 2023 and the company was currently constructing 27 Mini hospitals around the country.
Mr Azah explained that 76 mini hospitals are expected to be complete by the end of the year. “ this hospital we are seeing here is being constructed on a space of 2036 square meter and will comprise four staff houses, two isolation rooms, two observation rooms, operation room, maternity room”.
He said the construction of the 26 bed capacity hospital whose works stood at about 55 percent will be completed by November 2021. And Patriotic Front Roan aspiring parliamentary candidate Nathan Chanda said the construction of the mini hospital will help to decongest other hospitals in the district. Mr Chanda, who is former Luanshaya mayor, said the hospital will cater for a population of over 60 thousand people.
