By MILDRED KATONGO  –
FIRST Lady Esther Lungu has donated medical equipment and foodstuff worth K94,000 to Ndola Teaching Hospital (NTH).
Ms Lungu said her foundation was complementing the efforts by the Government to improve the healthcare service delivery.
She said this during the handover of the items in Ndola yesterday.
Ms Lungu said NTH requested for assistance and that she was compelled to do so to help improve service delivery at the referral centre.
The items included wheelchairs, wooden crutches, mattresses, walking sticks, examination beds, mealie meal and rice.
“I feel duty-bound to help improve healthcare service delivery at the hospital by donating medical equipment and foodstuff. The hospital wrote to my foundation and I have come to fulfill the promise by donating,” Ms Lungu said.
She commended NTH management for engaging the community and the corporate stakeholders in helping improve services at the hospital.
Ms Lungu urged the hospital management to be transparent and accountable so that more people could donate the needed basic stuffs.
Ms Lungu also donated mealie meal and a cow to inmates at the Kamfinsa Correctional Centre.
The inmates who formed a choir and drama group welcomed the First Lady and performed at the donation ceremony.
Ms Lungu urged the inmates to reform even as they would be integrated back into society.
“Pray always and continue being the reformed people that you have become. Even when you are in prison we still consider you to be part of us,” she said.
NTH medical superintendent Alex Makupe said the hospital had been given the mandate to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates and that it was doing everything possible to work towards that goal.
Dr Makupe said in addressing the 30 per cent of people who were dying within one day of admission at the hospital, NTH had created a resuscitation unit to closely monitor patients and reduce the death rates.
He said the move would also help reduce deaths as a result of excessive bleeding in pregnant women and head injuries.
Dr Makupe commended the First Lady for the gesture and said the donated items would benefit the intended patients.
Zambia Correction Service Copperbelt regional commanding officer Wilson Mbewe commended the First lady for the gesture and for her passion to help uplift the living standards of the vulnerable in society.