REVELATIONS that mothers are shunning taking their under-5 children to clinics because some mothers believe that health services are not beneficial to their children are not only Public Relations (PR) issues, but are also professional issues.
Ndola district’s mother of Hillcrest area, Precious Katongo said she has been taking her two sons to Peter Singoyo health post for the past two years; but the health workers have just been weighing children; and give mothers dates for next appointments (Zambia Daily Mail: April 17, 2014; page 4).
And Margret Kang’ombe agreed with Mrs Katongo’s views that there is no benefit of taking their under-5 children to clinics just for children to be weighed when such a services can be done at their various homes.
Ndola district medical officer, Kakungu Simpungwe confirmed that some health workers in Ndola district just weigh children without providing mothers who come with their under-5 children with health talks; adding that such a practice has led to mothers shunning under-5 health services.
One of the Lusaka district’s women told this writer that she left one of compounds in Lusaka for medical services at Universities Teaching Hospital (UTH) around 06:00hours and reached UTH around 08:00hours where she joined the queue up to about 14:00hours.
Upon reaching the final point, she was just given panado. She said she had stomache; and had spent about K12.00 on transport from her home to UTH only.
It is from such backgrounds that some citizens feel that some health institutions and their respective workers are not helping citizens access good health care.
It is unfortunate that such press reports are coming at a time when most Zambians including some politicians and some traditional leaders have been appealing to the government to re-instate the fired nurses for such  related attitude and practices of not providing essential health services when they are most required to do so.
This doesn’t mean that one is withdrawing the appeal to our government  to re-instate the fired nurses; but that health workers aren’t supposed to conduct themselves unprofessionally when there are other pressing issues that haven’t been settled yet. Don’t add salt to the injury! You might come out of the pan; and get into the fire.
But such developments in public institutions are not restricted to health institutions alone.
Such attitudes and practices against public interest are common to most government institutions.
In some local communities, people resort to mob justice just because when some cases are taken to police, not justice is done to ensure that the culprits are brought to book.
In some cases, some people in some areas feel that taking someone to courts of law is not helpful as most cases aren’t handled as objectively as most members of the public expect.
Little do such members of the public understand the technicalities of handling some cases at police and in courts of law.
It is against such a background that, in some cases, gender-based violence (GBV) in our country is high both in rural and urban areas.
This has made our country to have the highest GBV levels among the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.
This means that, one can argue that among other contributing factors, the way cases are handled at police stations or courts of law contributes to mob justice and increased GBV in our local communities.
In education sector, some parents and guardians aren’t taking their children to school because they feel that education is no longer beneficial in seeing one get a job.
In some communities, some farmers shun agricultural related meetings which agricultural extension workers or agricultural co-operative society officials organise just because such community members feel that such services are not benefiting them in any way.
If one asks some politicians, one might get the same answers that some community members shun some political meetings which some councilors and some members of parliament organisations because such community members feel that there is no benefit in attending such political meetings.
Such negative attitudes against public institutions might spread to social welfare and many other public institutions.
These and many others are some of the experiences some members of society face with some public institutions.
In short, what might be happening in some public institutions by some workers brings a question of public confidence in that institution. How do members of the public perceive your public or private institution?
One might argue that such negative trends both in some public workers from some community members might continue because supervision in our public institutions has relaxed.
One can say so because some senior government officers and leaders complain of poor worker culture among many civil servants; but no action is taken against erring officers.
If there is any action taken, it is either such erring officers are transferred somewhere to continue with their bad attitude towards work or such officers are promoted to senior positions at the same station or somewhere else.
One is not saying that firing more 500 nurses at a time is a solution to poor worker culture among civil servants; but that individual civil servant cases should be handled accordingly so that solutions are found to such poor public service delivery.
Wholesale dismissals of a certain group of civil servants can also have other devastating effects on public interests.
Each time one learns of such each negative development in the public services, one asks: ‘Where are the supervisors to such institutions?’
How can such a sad development be realised and be reported by an ordinary local community member like Ndola district’s Mrs Katongo and Mrs Kang’ombe after two years of such poor services; and not by an area councilor or an area MP?
And if one was to take a quick survey of the feeling of most residents in most districts, one would be surprised that it would be the same reports.
This proves that supervision and discipline in the civil service needs much to be desired.
But it is important to restore discipline and code of conduct in the civil service if adequate and high quality service provision is to be appreciated by members of the public.
Restoring discipline and professional code of conduct in the civil service is critical because as Dr Francis Chigunta recently stated in the interview with the Post, performance of a civil service has a strong bearing on economic performance of a country.
This further means that performance of  civil service has a bearing on the image of the government of the day in any country.
To restore discipline and professional code of conduct in public institution, every supervisor should be committed to his or her duty.
She or he should supervise subordinates objectively and fairly. Those workers who are committed to their work should be rewarded accordingly while those who have poor work culture should be disciplined or relieved of their duties immediately a violation of a rule(s) is done; and after disciplinary procedures have been followed.
But in the current civil service conditions of service and disciplinary code of conduct, it appears it is almost impossible to discipline a civil servant to dismissal level.
This is why one hears vice president, Dr Guy Scott, government ministers like Hon.  Daniel Munkhombwe and some controlling officers only frequently sending warning shorts to civil servants with poor work culture because they know that their hands are tied on serious disciplinary measures against erring workers.
Such a situation sustains misconduct and abuse of office in the civil service. Therefore, one the critical issues to address in improving discipline, work culture and high productivity thereby promoting effective PR in public institution is first to deal with conditions of service as far as disciplinary measures are done.
Last year, secretary to the cabinet, Rowland Msisika promised a vibrant civil service that would facilitate high quantity and quality of service delivery to the Zambian citizens through improved conditions of service which will attract workers from private sector to public service.
But the continued poor work attitude and misconduct among some civil servants are putting the promise Dr Msisika made in disrepute; thereby creating a unfavourable image of not only the civil service but also the government of the day.
Such a situation cannot be allowed to continue. Each civil servant in each public institution should promote professional PR not only for one’s own profession but also for the public institution concerned.
Health workers should always remember that children under the age of 5 are highly sensitive to health issues.
Therefore, denying their mothers health talks can lead to poor health in most children under this age.
Already, it is reported that about 45 per cent of children under the age of 5 years are malnourished, and have stunted growth.
It is also reported that many of such children die before they reach the fifth birth day.
Health talks equip mothers with knowledge that can help such children grow not only with health bodies but also grow mentally for future socio-cultural, economic, political, legal and technological intellectual capacities  for our country.
Therefore, not giving mothers health talks is like killing the future intellectual capacity of the whole country.
[The author is a PR Trainer and Consultant]
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