Lack of Doctor at Mwange refugee camp cripples operation

By Brenda Zulu in Mporokoso

There is no Doctor to attend to over 17,990 refugees based at Mwange Refugee Camp situated 35 Km West of Mporokoso.

United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Senior Field Clerk Roy Mwamba said they have faced the challenge of recruiting a doctor. He said that it has been difficult to recruit a Doctor as they have been demanding to be paid between K15 and K20 million a month.

Mwamba said the problem was further perpetuated by Mporokoso District Health Doctor who does not want to attend to refugees making all referrals to Kasama very difficult. He said the problem has been going on since the beginning of this year. He added that the Doctor has further refused to attend to refugee patients. By Press Time the Doctor was reported to be in Lusaka.

Meanwhile, Zambia Red Cross (ZRCS) Project Coordinator for Mwange refugee project David Phiri said the health sector at Mwange Refugee Camp lacks the Zambian Human Resource.

“Currently we have six workers instead of 12. We are less compared to the population at Mwange,” said Phiri. He added that it has been difficult to recruit and retain health staff at Mwange Refugee Camp attributing this to brain drain which has crippled the health sector.

He pointed out that there was an overload for Midwives in doing their job as Mwange Refugee Camp had a high birth rate and recorded between 80 to 90 births a day.

Phiri observed the deliveries were many for five midwives where there is currently only one Zambian and the other four are Congolese. Previously they had 17 midwives but the number reduced following the repatriation of refugees last year.

Constraints highlighted in the ZRCS Mwange Refugee Operation Joint Inter Agency Report include the delay in procurements and shipping of Medical, non medical laboratory supplies by UNHCR.

Mwange Camp Health sector has one facility which caters for the whole camp and the local Zambian community. Mwange Health provides curative health care, preventive and reproductive health activities including HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and TB and Leprosy.

Meanwhile, Mwange Senior Clinical Officer Richard Bwalya said he would like see refugees get fully immunised before their repatriation this year as he was not sure weather this was done in Congo DR.

Bwalya bemoaned the delay in the procurement for the full immunisation of the refugees from the District Health Office. By Press Time the District Health Officer for Mporokoso was reported to have been in Lusaka.

On HIV/AIDS, Bwalya said that they had a very low prevalence rate of 1.2% as they only have 7 people receiving ARVs. He added that there was no report of any disease outbreaks in the camp and the transit centres.