Kasungu District Council in MK839 million-hospital project

Kasungu, October 22, Mana: Kasungu District Council has invested MK839 million Performance Based Grant (PBG) funds into a paying clinic, which authorities say, will help to plug funding gaps for the district’s health sector.

Director of Health Services for the district, Emmanuel Golombe said on Monday that apart from being an income generating activity for the council’s health sector, the project is also a response to people’s demand for paying services to suit their interests.

“We want to generate revenue as a sector because this time, we have no means of raising funds apart from the subventions from the central government.

“We sometimes have funding gaps which compromise service delivery. So this initiative will help us raise resources to buy important items like fuel, critical drugs and others,” Golombe said.

He said the district has many clients who have been requesting to have pay services.

“Kasungu District Hospital serves over 300 clients a day. Those rushing to work, or are on medical schemes or can just afford to pay for private services find it difficult to wait for long hours.

“So this project properly responds to their needs. Actually, it is for everyone that can afford, including those coming outside the district,” he said.

Kasungu has a population of about a million people and its district hospital receives clients from communities such as Jenda in Mzimba and Malomo in Ntchisi.

Touring the construction works on Monday, Senior Planning Officer for National Local Government Finance Committee, Charity Kaunda expressed hope that the contractor will deliver a quality structure and within the agreed project timelines.

“This trip is about supporting the district council to ensure that they are delivering on the projects as per the agreements. It’s a spot check exercise whereby we check on the council on how they are delivering on the PBG funded projects.

“Our desire is to see that councils are able to utilise the resources that they get under this fund to address the community service gaps by implementing projects that can stand the test of time and implemented to the desired quality by adhering to specifications and completed within the given timelines,” Kaunda said.

Funded by the World Bank through the Governance to Enable Service Delivery (Gesd) project, PBGs are given to well performing councils identified through the Local Authorities Performance Assessment.

According to Kaunda, Gesd is about enhancing inefficiencies in the delivery of services in the councils.

She said: “So it’s not just about the projects. It’s about supporting the councils to embrace a performance culture in every area of their intervention.

“The good thing with Kasungu is that they comply with the principle of delivering a complete service package which we have always encouraged. This entails that once projects are completed, they should be functional.”

The paying clinic which is expected to be completed by December 31 this year, will have an Out-patient Department and an admission ward replete with self-contained rooms, laboratory, staff lounge, pharmacy, radiography and a car park, among other specifications.