• VICE-PRESIDENT Guy Scott listens to Health Minister Dr Joseph Kasonde (left) as University Teaching Hospital Managing Director Dr Lackson Kasonka (right) looks on during Dr Scott’s visit to the hospital in Lusaka yesterday. Picture by STEPHEN KAPAMBWE

By STEPHEN KAPAMBWE –

VICE-PRESIDENT Guy Scott has urged the Public Service Commission to expedite the process of hearing appeals and reinstating nurses who were erroneously dismissed in order to normalise staffing levels in hospitals countrywide.

Dr Scott said this when he paid an impromptu visit to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka yesterday, where he carried out an on-the-spot inspection of operations at the highest referral hospital which has an establishment of about 3,000 workers and 1,800 bed spaces.

Dr Scott, who was accompanied by Health Minister Dr Joseph Kasonde and UTH managing director Dr Lackson Kasonka, expressed disappointment at the slow pace at which nurses were being replaced, as well as the slow rate at which cases of nurses who were wrongly dismissed was being handled.

“I am not impressed at the slow rate at which we have replaced the nurses or dealt with their appeals. I am going to have a word with the Public Service Commission to see if they cannot accelerate that,” he said.

He said nurses who were erroneously dismissed should be reinstated so that the staffing levels in hospitals were normalised.

Dr Scott, who visited the maternity ward as well as wards E11 and E12 where he spoke with patients, nurses, doctors and relatives of the sick, said he was impressed by the work the Ministry of Health and UTH management were doing.

He said although there were issues that required to be addressed at UTH, he was generally impressed by the cleanliness and stocking of drugs at the hospital.

The Vice-President said he was impressed that the hospital was achieving good customer satisfaction, cleanliness and adequate stock of essential drugs like antibiotics and anti-cancer medicines.

He said the situation was not as serious as he had heard from reports reaching his office.

Dr Scott said some people were even gossiping that he was about to resign from the Government next month and assured the nation that such rumours were nothing more than gossip.

Earlier, Dr Kasonka informed the Vice-President that UTH had in the last two weeks received 116 nurses who had helped the hospital move towards normalising the staffing levels.

He said a total of 215 nurses had been dismissed, including some that were erroneously fired because they were either on leave or at school.

“So the actual number of those that were dismissed is less than 215, specifically 130 or 133 thereabout,” he said.

He said the Public Service Commission was recruiting nurses continuously and he was hopeful that more new nurses would be employed to address the staffing levels at UTH, which he said required at least 1,000 nurses to run smoothly.