Zambia is facing huge clinic officer shortages

Zambia’s health facilities are facing continued pressure […]

Zambia’s health facilities are facing continued pressure from shortages of clinical officers, with the country requiring nearly 20,000 clinical officers but having only about 7,100 employed, according to the Clinical Officers Association of Zambia.

The shortage means available clinical officers are carrying workloads that would ordinarily be shared among several health workers, raising concerns about the sustainability of health service delivery and the working conditions of those on the frontline.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Zambian Business Times-ZBT, the Clinical Officers Association Secretary General Musonda Kamfwa called for the enactment of a National Health Services Act to establish a clear legal framework for the delivery of health services and define the rights and responsibilities of both patients and health workers.

 Kamfwa said Zambia currently lacked dedicated national health services legislation that comprehensively provides standards for how health services should be delivered. “Currently, Zambia does not have a National Health Services legislation, the National Health Services Act, which is supposed to provide for the standards on how health services are supposed to be provided,” Kamfwa said.

 He said the proposed law was also important in protecting patients who may not have clear legal recourse when certain health services are not provided.

“So we have a problem where patients are not well protected when it comes to how health services are provided,” he said.

 Kamfwa said the association had previously engaged the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Justice on the issue and had participated in efforts to develop a policy framework that could facilitate the development of the legislation. He said the association had hoped that the bill would be presented to Parliament during the previous session, but this did not happen.

 “We were hoping that Bill would come before the floor of Parliament in the previous session of Parliament, but that did not happen,” Kamfwa said.

He said the association was now hoping that the legislation would be among the priorities when Parliament resumes. The call for the legislation comes as the shortage of clinical officers continues to place pressure on the health workforce.

Kamfwa said the country currently requires about 19,800 clinical officers but has employed only about 7,100.

“Meaning one clinical officer is providing services that three people are supposed to provide every day. So there’s a serious workload,” he said.

He noted that the association had raised the staffing concerns with the government on several occasions and had previously submitted policy briefs to the Ministry of Health. Kamfwa said the association had also recently written to the Management Development Division at the Cabinet Office as part of its continued engagement on issues affecting clinical officers.

“We continue engaging them,” he said.

 He said addressing the shortage was important because clinical officers provide a wide range of services in health facilities, with some degree-holding medical licentiates performing advanced procedures, including Caesarean sections.

 Kamfwa said the association was therefore seeking both improvements in the working conditions of clinical officers and a stronger legal framework for the health system.

Article by Karen Ngulube