Part 3 -- The Strike Continues

To learn more about the effects of the health workers strike, I visited a medical clinic in a “compound” in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. Over half of Lusaka’s more than two million people live in compounds, which are high-density housing areas usually inhabited by the poor. Ng'ombe, the compound I visited, has an official population of about 32,000 as measured by the 2000 census, but its actual population is much higher.

A single medical clinic, less than 10 years old, serves Ng'ombe. It has a maternity ward, a pediatrics section, a small laboratory, and several examination rooms. The facilities are limited but clean, sturdy, and functional. But only one doctor serves the entire clinic -- and she also serves a clinic near the Lusaka airport, so she only visits Ng'ombe on Wednesdays.

About 120 people visit the Ng'ombe clinic on an average day; over 200 show up on a busy one. Seventeen nurses (six of whom are registered) do most of the work. During the strike, the Ng’ombe clinic completely shut down. For more than a month, a compound of well over 30,000 Zambians had no medical facilities. And residents of Ng’ombe would fare no better outside their compound during the strike, because public clinics outside the compound were also shuttered, and private ones were beyond the means of most Ng’ombe residents.

As the strikes continued, the Zambian government attempted to bring the fraudsters to justice and took prophylactic measures to prevent further problems. President Rupiah Banda banned all Ministry of Health workers under investigation from continuing to work. Several employees were charged with crimes.

But the primary investigation into the missing 27 billion kwacha suffered a major setback around mid-June, when unknown persons broke into a secure room and stole crucial Ministry of Health data. It was later revealed that the Ministry of Health workers were likely behind the disappearance, which compromised a forensic audit aimed at pinpointing how much money was actually funneled out of the Ministry of Health -- and who stole it.