Road to decongest UTH

LUSAKA-“Government, through the Ministry of Health, remains committed to providing quality healthcare in the country,” Said Dr. Reuben Kamoto Mbewe, Ministry of Health Spokesperson in an interview “It is fully aware of the challenge of congestion at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and measures to this in the short and long term development have since been employed.”

I have tried to explore the question “Can UTH be decongested?” coupled with “is Government doing anything to decongest the national referral hospital?”

In this write-up, culminating from a query by a local reporter and subsequent response by Ministry of Health Spokesperson, who believes efforts have already been employed to significantly reduce on an expected traffic at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in the near future, I highlight some of these interventions. 

The above questions are obviously not new to the Ministry of Health spokesperson. Many journalist, reporters, writers and other analysts have flooded the Ministry with such questions.

The University Teaching Hospital being a tertiary hospital caters for the whole nation as a referral hospital. Over the years, the population of the country has increased resulting in increased demand of services by health facilities including the UTH. Equally of note is the exponential increase in population of Lusaka province which is estimated at about three million with Lusaka district where the UTH is located having a population of about two and half million.

Coupled with the above scenario is the fact that for a long time, apart from referrals from all parts of the country, patients were also referred directly from health centres in Lusaka to the UTH. It is also common knowledge that patients and clients shunned health posts and clinics opting to go directly to UTH. Needless to say, this remains a huge challenge for the Ministry of Health and causes unexpected congestion.

Dr. Mbewe has assured that government through the Ministry of Health aims to improve all facets of the health sector like infrastructure development, human resources development, state-of-art medical equipment and adequate primary health care provision.

In the last few years, the Ministry has been seen to have been tirelessly laboring towards putting up adequate infrastructure to improve service delivery.

Dr. Mbewe adds that there is infrastructure development going on at UTH. “Among the various infrastructural projects is the Adult Medical and Emergency Unit (AMEU) under construction at the moment. Equally important to mention is the completion of phase 2 Cancer disease hospitals which caters for both adult and paediatric cancer patients. This will decongest the wards from cancer patients. New surgical wards are also being constructed in the UTH grounds which will undoubtedly contribute to the reduction in congestion at the hospital.”

Other infrastructural developments such as the construction of the 650 health posts across the country are believed to be lasting solutions to the problem at hand. This is expected so because it will also contribute to the decongestion as Lusaka is also a beneficiary of the health posts some of which are operational.

“About 44 hospitals are being constructed countrywide and Lusaka province were UTH is situated has also benefited. This means that patients who were referred from say Chongwe and Kafue health centres directly to UTH are attended to in their districts at the recently built first level hospitals.  In particular is the completion of the upgrade of Matero and Chilenje to level 1 hospitals with support from JICA infrastructure development program.  Upgrade of Chawama, Chipata and Kanyama under the same program is slated to start in 2017” Said Dr. Mbewe

In Lusaka, the construction of Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital serves the purpose of decongesting UTH. Plans are underway to expand Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital by increasing number of bed spaces. Furthermore, plans have reached an advanced stage to build another hospital in Lusaka West known as L85. This will be a third level hospital with a fully-fledged nursing school and staff accommodation.

Modernization of the University Teaching (UTH) Hospital remains at the heart of the Ministry’s effort both in the short and long term development as the goal is to make UTH a true national referral hospital to deal with complicated cases that cannot be handled in facilities below it. With the efforts going towards decongestion of UTH, the Minsitry is confident that this will sooner than later become a reality.

Another side of the Ministry’s effort is that of reducing the disease burden in the country. “Preventive measures to reduce the disease burden on the population is key in reducing traffic on UTH and other facilities. Therefore, the Ministry remains resolute to awareness creation on how the population can prevent diseases such as the efforts towards the elimination of malaria and efforts to prevent transmission of HIV and other communicable and non-communicable diseases.”

Client/customer satisfaction is another aspect attracting the attention of the Ministry. Therefore, Government is pledging to continue to hire more health workers to provide quality services. The Ministry posted consultants or senior registrars to run Level 1 Hospitals so as to attend to cases that can be dealt with within these facilities and only complicated ones should be sent to UTH.

The Ministry of Health spokesperson concluded with a reminder that focus on the vision of "A Nation of Healthy & Productive People" through the mission "To provide equity of access to cost effective quality health services, as close to the family as possible in a Clean, Caring and Competent environment" still remains the fastest vehicle to achieving it and will be achieved soon.