Would you, or anyone, in their right mind and enjoying good health want to get sick at the hospital or clinic because of buying food or something from someone who sneaked them into the ward or medical facility grounds? Well, this is a subtle threat to public health that I have witnessed which even some or most workers at health facilities are letting to take root or leaving unchecked. Vendors go as far as into the wards, carrying and conducting their business of selling airtime, foodstuffs, toiletries, sanitary ware and the like in buskets, backpacks and handbags.
At once, I was enraged as quickly as I was shocked at some women who were buying chikanda, a traditional delicacy popularly called 'African polony' from a vendor who carried it around the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in a basket! I tried to stop them but my words yielded no positive results, so I bade the lady vendor to go away from the facility. She had disguised her merchandise in such a way that no one would suspect she is a vendor but someone with a patient in a ward. What if she didn't observe basic hygiene or that food was left over from the previous day(s) and only to bring an infection into the hospital? Imagine you were fine when you left home but contract cholera at the hospital or clinic through the food you ate bought from a vendor you don't even know where they're from?I have sadly witnessed and heard about this pathetic vending at several health facilities. At UTH I went as far as notifying a guard who disclosed that the vendors are even apprehended at times, but of course you can wonderful if they're prosecuted to serve as a warning and deterrent in future and to other would-be offenders. It seems people who want to 'make money' in that manner are neither ashamed of disturbing, and in some cases even steal from others who are helpless on the sick beds nor sympathetic to their plight. This "sebana wikute" mentality is not needed at health facilities; the vendors are not entitled to what seems to be an opportunity to make money! These men and women unashamedly take advantage of every situation and everyone. After all some of the staff in those facilities are their partners or accomplices to the point of eluding security personnel! Most of the vendors are poor and uneducated, and they do care much or at all about hygiene and health, to the extent that they can even hide themselves or their merchandise in a toilet just to avoid being caught or save the same merchandise from being confiscated! AND YOU WOULD BUY IT or FROM THEM!?
I would thus like to passionately appeal to culprits, especially those who buy from vendors to stop! I know there is poverty and people need to survive, but vending should not be in such a sneaky manner and in such places. Management and every worker at health facilities should lead by example in preventing diseases and stamping out any and all threats to public and occupational health. Support your neighbors or friends by buying from designated places, BUT remember the threat to PUBLIC HEALTH. How can diseases be prevented or controlled if we buy questionable food and other things from vendors right at the hospitals or clinics? These facilities should be the epitome of good hygiene and its practice in society!
How can patients have peace and general wellbeing while receiving treatment or trying to recover when they are disturbed and bombarded by market- or opportunity-hungry vendors? This kind of vending is a shame, menace, and poison in health facilities of our communities and the country as a whole. Unless it's curbed or stopped, the health risk is surely high.
This was first drafted some time in October/November 2019
1 comment:
This has been on my mind too!
Hospital vending is a dangerous practice that has been allowed to take root in our hospitals. Nurses in charge of wards have allowed this and it is unfortunate. One is left to wonder if nurses really take their profession seriously. UTH and all other health institutions must not allow this kind of conduct. There is a shop at the cafe that must sell all these items that these women sell. A customer must be able to trace the source fo goods incase there was a problem. As it is, buying of items is at patient's risk. The minister of health must stop this practice at once.
I was also disturbed to see the rise of the numerous iron sheet shops just outside UTH. For goodness sake, this is a frontage of the highest and biggest health facility in the country. How do we allow tutemba in front of main gates like that? Honestly, we need to be serious as a country. I for once imagined if one would find similar things happening in South Africa or UK or USA. We are sinking so low as a nation if we begin to allow anything to be erected anywhere by anyone. There are places where the local government must never issue permission to anyone to construct anything. I wonder if authorities that be have taken the trouble to find out what is sold in such tutembas. Very soon such makeshift shops will be selling medical assesories like syringes, sample bottles, IV fluids and so forth. Perhaps even patients will be admited right outside UTH in these makeshift shops. We need to take drastic measures as a country to ensure such things do not happen. The same situation of tutemba is happening along the road between High Court rear entrance and Intercontinental Hotel. How on earth do people build tutemba on the walls of a hotel and in front of the important rear entrance to the court? Should such level of impunity be allowed? Inasmuch as people need to make a living, we must not allow trading anywhere. The road has even narrowed and one has to struggle to get to the LWSC offices or housing units on this same road. When such things begin to happen, one is left to wonder whether this is a sign that Law and Order has collapsed in our nation. Let those charged with the responsibility of issuing permits to people to construct trading places see to it that they are following the law. Certain things may seem insignificant and of little consequence now but in the long run prove to be difficult decisions to reverse. Ladies and Gentlemen, let us by all means try and do what is right so that Zambia becomes a better nation with time and full of law abiding citizens.
Post a Comment