Republican President Hakainde Hichilema has reaffirmed government’s plans to ensure that all volunteer health workers are recruited into the civil service under the Ministry of Health.
Despite having already recruited a record close to 15,000 health workers since 2022, President Hichilema says the New Dawn government remains committed to ensuring that all health workers working as volunteers are fully employed.
Speaking when he commissioned the newly-built Chamboli Level One Hospital in Kitwe today, President Hichilema saluted the volunteer health workers for showing commitment to serve even without having been recruited yet.
“We have heard the cries of volunteer nurses and we will take care of you. If a nurse or medical staff can volunteer without being given a formal job, that is already a sign of commitment and we need such committed people to serve the people,” President Hichilema said.
“That is the reason we will need to give them jobs one by one until we can absorb all of them. So just stay quiet and know that you will be recruited because we love you so much.”
The Head of State also emphasized on the need to increase the workforce in the health sector in order to improve service delivery in the community.
“To complete the story we now need medical staff including nurses, paramedics and doctors of different specialism because the human resource side is critical to working with the assets and resources that are there to deliver the services to our people,” he said.
Meanwhile, President Hichilema went on to state that the completion of the Chamboli Level One Hospital as well as other developmental projects such as the increased Constituency Development Fund (CDF) are clear indications of the New Dawn administration’s promise to bring essential services closer to the people through a decentralized approach.
“I want to simply indicate the commitment that this UPND government has even from the days when we were in opposition through our manifesto. We talked about delivering effective health services closer to the people,” he said.
“We pronounced decentralization of public or government services in terms of health and this is part of the decentralization of health services delivery closer to people and to where they live.”
He added: “It is the same same story of decentralization that has taken the judiciary closer to the people, we are taking resources closer to the people through Constituency Development Fund and this is a story of our vision and manifesto.”
President Hichilema also confirmed that construction of a mortuary, kitchen and guard house will soon commence to add to the newly-built structure at Chamboli Level One Hospital.
