Medical officers calls on civic leaders to work with them.

District Medical Officer (DMO) in Mufumbwe district of North Western province, Fred Kapaya, has called on civic leaders to develop cordial relations with health workers in Mufumbwe.

 

Dr Kapaya says councillors need to work well with nurses and doctors in their respective wards for the benefit of the people.

 

Dr Kapaya said the hospital wants to develop good partnerships with councillors in order to deliver acceptable health services in the district.

 

The District Medical Officer was speaking in Mufumbwe when he addressed councillors as part of the programme to mark World Health Day.

 

And several councillors have disclosed that they faced a lot of challenges with health personnel in the district.

Kamabuta Ward Councillor, Elijah Munyompe said health workers were unprofessional in most health facilities in the district.

 

“You need to talk to your nurses, they are very unprofessional, some even reaching an extent of laughing at patients,” Mr Munyompe said.

 

Another councillor, Herod Zholomi, of Shukwe Ward, bemoaned the failure to conduct primary observations by some health workers in most clinics in the district.

 

“The work of some of our nurses leaves much to be desired. We have a situation where a nurse cannot even do primary examinations of patients instead all they do is to wait for the doctors to do everything,” Mr Zholomi said.

 

But Dr Kapaya assured the councillors that measures have been put in place to improve service delivery in the district by changing nurse’s attitudes towards work.

 

The DMO has since advised councillors not to be quick in calling for nurses to be transferred from their wards especially that health workers were a scarce resource countrywide.

 

“It is not good to always call for nurses to be transferred from your wards when you encounter problems with them, look at other solutions. Come to us, before you ask for them to be moved because nurses in the country are needed everywhere, and if we move them from their stations it will be very difficult to find replacements,” he said.

 

He added that staff accommodation and transport remain a huge challenge for the health sector in the district.

 

Meanwhile, Dr Kapaya has called on councillors to assist the hospital in monitoring drugs pilferage in their respective wards.

 

Dr Kapaya said stakeholders needed to work together to curb drug pilferage in the district adding that the law would take its course against any officer found wanting.