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Kalabo district in Western province is facing a critical shortage of qualified health personnel, Acting District Medical Officer, Arthur Mutuna has disclosed.
Dr. Mutuna said hospitals and health centres in Kalabo district were not adequately staffed because of the shortage of qualified manpower.
He told ZANIS in an interview that only 49 per cent of available positions of trained health staff in the district were occupied leaving a shortage of 51 per cent.
He said the situation has hindered efficient delivery of quality health service at health centres and hospitals in the district.
Dr. Mutuna said only one out of the eight newly opened health facilities has trained health personnel.
He said there was therefore need to deploy more health staff to the district if the country was to achieve its vision of brining health care services as close to the people as possible in an efficient manner.
He said lack of transport to transfer drugs from Medical Stores Limited (MSL) in Lusaka to the health facilities in the district has also caused periodic shortage of essential drugs in the district.
Dr. Mutuna however commended government for the constant supply of Anti Retro Viral drugs to Kalabo, saying the district has never experienced a shortage of these medicines.
He also said Kalabo was making progress in the fight against tuberculosis (TB) noting that the curative rate currently stands at 88 percent.
