Health Systems and Economics in Zambia

Running head: ZAMBIA
Health systems and Economics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ZAMBIA
The Republic of Zambia is a country situated in south-central Africa and became
independent in 1964. This country has been found to encounter several challenges related to
healthcare in the recent years. This essay will discuss the way by which the country performs
in relation to the key elements of healthcare.
The six core building blocks of the framework are (i) service delivery, (ii) health
information systems, (iii) health workforce, (iv) financing, (v) access to essential medicines,
and (vi) leadership/governance Service delivery is principally subjugated by public sector
that regulates 90% of the facilities, with a gradual development of the private sectors as well
(WHO, 2018). However, Zambia has been identified as one of the 57 nations that suffers
from a shortage of HCW due to lack of adequate healthcare funding. Thus, there is a crisis in
the healthcare workforce.
The major shortage is for nurses and midwives and this can be addressed by
reinforcing and initiating a safe work environment. Moreover, they are not well trained in the
core competencies of partnering, patient-centred care, quality improvement, information and
communication technology, and public health perspective (WHO, 2006). The country has
also not developed any explicit or holistic health financing policies. In Zambia, the
augmented mandate for health information and the latent occasion to supply it calls for an
expenditure in construction of a sustainable national HIS.
According to WHO (2006) the country eliminated user dues in district hospitals and
healthcare centres that were present at rural and semi-urban regions, with the aim of to
increasing parity of healthcare access. Thus, it can be stated that Zambian healthcare sector is
donor dependent. Furthermore, the people also do not have proper access to adequate
nutrition, which can be accredited to 52% of deaths of children aged less than five years
(WHO, 2018). Medical products, infrastructure and vaccine services are a major weakness of