The Zambia Medical Association (ZMA) has expressed disappointment over the extremely unflattering terms in which Health Minister Sylvia Masebo addressed the medical profession during the recently held 58th ZMA Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting (AGM).
On 7 August 2022, the Zambian Business Times-ZBT reported that Masebo had a combative meeting with the medical doctors at the conference and the minister was lambasting the doctors, a situation which did not go well with the doctors and ZMA members in attendance.
The meeting did not go well, this may have led to the PS being seen in bad light and Masebo may have influenced the decision to have Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary-PS Administration Dr. George Magwende fired.
ZMA General Secretary Dr. Roy Tolopu said the association has taken exception to the unsubstantiated accusations that the chronic and critical shortages of drugs and medical supplies in public institutions is a result of pilfering by healthcare workers.
According to Information made available to the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Dr. Tolopu refuted accusations that medical doctors in senior management positions within Ministry of Health
structures and allied statutory bodies are running down the health system and stealing government time by undertaking private practice during work hours.
Dr. Tolopu said doctors make many sacrifices and donations from their own time and pockets to ensure that patients receive the highest possible care, even in the face of nationwide shortages.
“Any doctor or nurse can tell you about long-standing challenges we encounter in delivering
life-saving interventions such as oxygen therapy and procedures such as lumbar puncture.
Public suspicion concerning these procedures stems in part from high-level misinformation, delivered decades ago. To be accused of stealing from a system we are breaking our backs to support is nothing short of a slap in the face”, he said.
He stressed that the association’s primary interest is good stewardship of the nation’s health therefore ZMA’s first and overriding concern is the potential long-standing damage caused by erroneous statements made by high-level officials whose official capacity commands the public trust.
“To suggest without evidence that all medical doctors are stealing government time, knowing as we do the price the profession continually pays to deliver on the government’s mandate to maintain a healthy nation, is at best baseless conjecture and at worst, malice”, Dr. Tolopu added.
Dr. Tolopu explained that with regards to the management of large complex institutions, Districts and Provinces, ZMA counters that doctors have done a great deal to improve functions and decrease mortality and morbidity in centres throughout the country, often finding creative ways to do so when government grants have been delayed or diminished.
He noted that the medical profession has done much to build synergies between the private and public sector, by optimizing rare highly specialized skills and equipment and indeed, successful health systems make good use of a mix of private and public facilities, which in part serves to life the burden from government, and from the poorest patients.
The General Secretary said ZMA National Executive Committee along with senior members of the profession are engaging the minister on these matters of grave concern and has called upon its members to exercise magnanimity, restraint and patience, as the association works to address this matter with professionalism and decorum.
