ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE IN ZAMBIA NEEDS DEVOTION
Written by Millennium on May 24, 2019
ACCESS to health care is a concern which should help sick people to be supported with ideal resources in order to preserve or improve their well-being.
Indeed, there are many mental and physical barriers that affect access to this health care in many African countries, including Zambia, and which may be influenced by poverty more than anything else.
In fact, Article 25 of the United Nations 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.”
We also know that no nation can achieve a meaningful economic development without sound health care for its people as they say that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation.
Healthcare is important to society because people get ill, accidents and emergencies do arise and hospitals need to be fully equipped to meet these day to day challenges.
This should come about because access to health care impacts a person’s overall physical, social, and mental health status and quality of life.
But currently it would seem that our health service delivery in Zambia has become a big defy, if not worse especially in rural areas.
Sick people both in towns and rural areas are daily made to stand in long queues only to be given prescriptions when they are finally seen by medical personnel.
This, of course, implies that health services in Zambia will be the sole preserve of the rich who can trot from one private hospital or clinic to another with immense ease .
Those who are extremely well off can even afford to seek overseas medical services using their financial muscles.
So the poor in Zambia have no likelihood, it seems, that they will receive appropriate health care and where this happens is not adequate.
This so explains the pickle in which a Lusaka’s Ng’ombe Township woman Regina Tembo with blocked veins has found herself in and is appealing to well-wishers for help to save her life which is now in great danger.
Ms Tembo, 57, says she has been suffering from blocked veins for man y years and this has resulted in a poor blood flow to the heart which is now growing by the day.
Ms Tembo says she fell sick 15 years ago but decided to go to UTH in 2008 for medical attentions when the symptoms worsened.
“Nipempako thandizo kuli alionse angani tandize na ndalama zo yenda ku operation ndaba mankwala ya dula maningi,” She said.
She is waiting for an expensive operation which is anticipated could provide her with a permanent solution for her illness.
“Ku scanning, banani uza ati muli doti muma veins so blood siyi fika bwino bwino ku mutima, vilengesa mutima ku kula. Mankwala yadula ni K250 yankala 2 months elo apa yayambo vuta ku peza,” Ms Tembo says
She was also give prescriptions for four different types of medication and is currently remaining with one which she is unable to buy due to lack of money.
It is against this background that we implore those concerned with health care in Zambia to ensure the realization of improved health services for all.
This they must do because many people, like Ms Tembo, go without health care from which they could benefit greatly and consequently die in total despair.
The pitiable in developing countries are even less likely than the better off to receive effective health care hence the need for measures to redress the circumstances.
ENDS
