Be ready to work in rural areas, Masebo tells doctors

HEALTH Minister Sylvia Masebo has urged medical doctors to always be prepared to be posted to any part of the country to work, especially in the under-served remote areas.

Speaking in Kitwe during the Resident Doctors of Zambia (RDAZ) 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Scientific Conference under the theme, ‘Innovations and Solutions – Shaping the Future of Healthcare in Zambia,’ Ms Masebo said deploying doctors in the under-served remote areas is the only sure way to realise the vision of providing equitable access to cost-effective quality healthcare services to the people.

Ms Masebo observed that the outbreaks of the Covid-19 and the recent Cholera pandemic underscored the urgent need for innovative solutions, such as improved sanitation systems, rapid diagnostic tests, adequate health care facilities that are well equipped to combat infectious diseases and safeguard public health.

The Minister has implored doctors to work in unity, as they did during the recent cholera outbreak when many people volunteered their services to serve the people of Zambia, which prompted President Hakainde Hichilema to offer them employment into the civil service including 95 medical doctors.

Ms Masebo has assured the medical that Government is still committed to employing more health care workers, adding that the Ministry will ensure that debt owed to doctors and all health workers in general is continuously dismantled.

She says Government will also ensure career progression for deserving health workers by promoting them and placing them in correct salary scales.