January 26, 2007 blog

Today we traveled to Siavonga to visit a district hospital and day clinic. In a district of over 70,000 people they have this hospital and one mission hospital. The district hospital has four doctors, sixteen nurses and one midwife. We visited the wards, pharmacy, laboratory and day clinic.

The government used some of its debt relief to abolish health user fees in the rural areas like Siavonga. In addition, the medicines are free. This is a mixed bag. The abolition of fees has increased access for people; more people are going to the hospital and clinic. Unfortunately, the funding and infrastructure is not in place to have enough staff and medicine to handle the increased demand.

The poorly funded government and they years of wage freezes by the government, imposed by the IMF, means that the government wages are not sufficient to attract doctors and nurses. The brain drain is great. Zambian doctors in Namibia make four times what they would earn in a rural area in Zambia.