ARE PUBLIC HOSPITALS OFFERING BEST CARE?
OBy LINDA SOKO TEMBO NE man, nursing a son with pneumonia and complications of an injury sustained in a fight, complained of being attended to only by student doctors, especially at weekends.
“Students have taken charge and doing more especially at weekends. We do not see doctors at weekends in the wards,” the unhappy father complained.
As the debate on the circular banning medical personnel from working in private hospitals and drawing two salaries continues, the Daily Nation took time to talk to patients and people nursing family members in government hospitals.
These are some of the complaints from patients in Lusaka’s major public hospitals, University Teaching Hospital and Levy Hospital.
When one goes to the hospital, it is with hope that they will be attended to by the doctor in quick time. However, this rarely happens. The only ones readily available are the student doctors who spend more time in wards because it is part of their learning process.
The Nation decided to visit government hospitals and clinics and find out from users how they were being assisted by medical personnel in view of complaints that most personnel were spending more time private hospitals.
It is the view of many users that there is need for government to seriously consider changing the face of the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) because a lot has to be done to improve the health facility.
Nation staff who spent time on queues and in wards at both institutions, found that the most complaints centred around conditions in wards. The only section of the hospital that most patients praised was the casualty and admissions ward.
Some complained of poor sanitation compounded by lack of water or the intermittent supply. This has forced many families to have to ferry water in huge containers to the hospital to ensure their relatives can have a bath and something to drink.
Another woman, looking after a relative in ward E 22 said the biggest challenge observed at UTH was the fact that there were few doctors who attended to patients and that there were a lot of student doctors who visited the ward and attended to patients.
“There is a big problem here at UTH. There are too many student doctors. You find a lot of students attending to one patient learning on what type of disease the patient has and that is why you find that a lot of deaths are recorded,” he said.
The other source of complaint was lack of readily available blood from the Blood bank. One man claimed they had to find a donor within the family to donate blood for the patient who had pneumonia.
Another source said she was happy with the services that UTH was offering but she was disappointed with the way some departments were stealing money for the patients.
“When l was with my patient at the casualty the doctors and the nurses were busy working until they transferred us to the ward. I have several complains that l think UTH management must look into. Some workers are stealing from us it’s very sad.
“When we went to the echo department we were advised to buy tissue that they use for wiping off the gel on a patient’s body and the fun part is the same cleansers in that department are the one who sell the tissue at K5.
“I saw the cleaner removing the tissue from the locker. The same ones that we bring and one tissue is used on four people. It is very sad,” the source said.
The source also disclosed that the scan department was one other area where there was corruption. The source said she had a sister in-law who workers at UTH who wanted to get a picture
when someone was being bribed so that they could have quick results.
She said when the workers saw the nurse taking a picture they ran away which was very sad adding that if one did not bribe the workers one was not able to get results in good time. “It’s really sad. They take advantage of our problems to make money. Management must look into this matter”.
“And the other thing is that the cleaners are so rude they chase us like dogs when they are cleaning the wards even those whose patients are seriously ill which is not good. We are not against them clearing but the way they do it,” the source said.
The stress of staying in hospital could be made easier with more consideration from all staff. One suggestion is that the UTH management, should for instance, consider building a shelter for those who are looking after patients.
“Because when we are chased we just sit outside in the cold like a few days ago when it rained people were just standing in the mud. There is nothing we can do because we can not abandon our relatives. There is no one to help with will cleaning patients or helping them when they need to go to the toilet. That is where us relatives come in.”
It is also surprising to learn that cleaning companies may not aware that some of the people they send to clean hospital, go there while drunk.
“And the cleaning companies must know that some of the cleansers come drank and they do not do a good job when it comes to working because of the state they come in. The cleaning companies must be checking their employers.” Others complained that the period between a patient being interviewed and treatment can take a week because the few doctors available were too busy.
A woman who had a patient in the same ward complained that her relative had spent a week in the ward coughing blood and on oxygen but could not be given medicine because they could not go for an x-ray. Promises made to use a portable x-ray had so proved futile. She was not sure whether to cry or pray for a miracle. She said if they did not have the machine they should just tell them instead of keeping them in suspense. The issue of shared ablution facilities is also of concern to many people. In some cases, toilets were being shared by both men and female.
To many Zambians, government hospitals offer the only hope of treatment. Not many can afford private hospital services that come at a high premium.
The seemingly long queues found in government health institutions are a reflection of the number of people dependent on public health.
In some rural health centres, institutions are manned by non medical personnel, a situation that possesses greater risk to the public. It is not uncommon to find a guard giving out medicine at a rural health centre.