Salima DHO bemoans lack of human resources

By: Golden Kang’oma junior – Mana

Salima District Hospital (DHO) has said lack of human resources in its facilities is affecting its day to day operations posing a challenge in accomplishing universal health coverage.

This was revealed on Wednesday during the commemoration of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) held in Salima under the theme “Keep the Promise” with support from Facilitators for Community Transformation (FACT).

Speaking on the side-lines of the commemoration, District Medical Officer for Salima, Dr George Kasondo said lack of human resources is making them refer most of their patients to Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) to access services that they could have accessed at the district hospital.

“If we look at UHC, it carters across a lot of things, one is the availability of human resource, we are being challenged because we don’t have enough human resource on the ground as most of our health service providers are general clinicians which don’t perform specialized clinical services,” said Kasondo.

He further highlighted that previously they used to have clinical visits from Kamuzu Central Hospital, but currently it has been three months without such visits, a thing which is fuelling a lot of referrals to KCH.

In her sentiments, Salima District Council Chairperson, Esther Soko promised to work hand in hand with different stakeholders and communities to make sure that there is perfect health service provision in the district.

“We are going to lobby for more resources to make sure that people are not dying due to insufficient medical resources in terms of both human resource and medical supplies and we will make sure that everyone receives health services accordingly in the district,” said Soko.

Executive Director for FACT, Thokozire Nkhoma asked members of parliament in the district to be responsible in resource tracking and mobilization as they play the central role in initiating development.

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