By CATHERINE NYIRENDA –
MINISTRY of Health acting permanent secretary Wellani Chilengwa has announced that the ministry has trained 594 community health workers to work in some of the 650 health posts to be constructed around the country.
Dr Chilengwa said this when he appeared before the Parliamentary committee on Government Assurances chaired by United Party for National Development (UPND) Chikankata Member of Parliament (MP) Munji Habeenzu.
“An addition of more than 300 community health workers were being trained in Ndola to beef up on the already trained personal to man these posts once completed,” Dr Chilengwa said.
He also confirmed that the ground-breaking ceremony to start the construction of the 650 health post would be done on February, 6, 2014 in Solwezi.
And Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) Luena MP Mulumemui Imenda questioned the Permanent secretary to state why the construction of the 650 health post had taken so long, especially that the project should have started in 2011.
Dr Chilengwa responded that the process of procuring material for such a huge projects took long and that Government was waiting for the letter of credit and other tender processes to start  the project.
Dr Chilengwa also told the committee that Government had so far recruited 1,885 health workers from the K77.9 million allocated in the 2012 budget from the net recruitment of 2,500 frontline medical personnel.
Patriotic Front (PF) Chama North MP January Zimba questioned why the ministry had only recruited 1,885 so out of the 2,500.
Dr Chilengwa responded that after computing the figure allocated for the recruitment of rontline medical personnel, the figure was catering only for 2,303 staff and that the ministry failed to employ the remaining health workers because they were not available on the market.