Maputo, 3 Oct (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has challenged health professionals to address the problems of users of the health service with respect, prioritizing ethics and the principles of patient rights.
According to the President, who was speaking on Monday during the inauguration of a hospital in Bilene district, in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza, the new hospital should be a place for promoting health and helping to prevent diseases, and for health surveillance.
The hospital, budgeted at over 500 million meticais (7.8 million dollars, at the current exchange rate) from the state coffers, was built under the government’s “One District, One Hospital” initiative.
The infrastructure includes 120 beds, an operating theatre, a pharmacy, and a physiotherapy ward, among other services.
“The hospital is also a place for health professionals to train and, through research, to seek solutions to the health problems affecting the community”, said Nyusi. “The hospital will solve the users’ problems, as they will acquire the information they need to promote health and prevent illness”, he said.
He said “the health professionals, who work here, will have a suitable environment in which to continually improve their knowledge, thus contributing to the development of the institution in this district.”
He urged the more than 130 health professionals assigned to the hospital to refrain from unlawful charges and not to take possession of patients’ property.
“You have to be ashamed, you have to find it difficult to take a patient’s property. There are some who even like to take rings”, he said.
Nyusi believes that vigilance can help eliminate the core of corruption and other deviant behaviour.
“Vigilance needs to be strengthened, there needs to be mechanisms for control, monitoring and transparency of internal procedures, including reliable methods for collecting and processing information on complaints from users and staff”, the President said.
He called on the hospital’s management and staff to make Bilene District Hospital a benchmark for good care for all users.
With the inauguration of the hospital, the ratio of inhabitants to health units in Gaza is improving and coming closer to the standards recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
(AIM)
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