ZAMBIA AT 62: WHY ARE WE STILL EVACUATING PATIENTS FOR TREATMENT ABROAD?
At 62 years of independence, Zambia must ask herself a painful but necessary question, “How can a sovereign nation, endowed with minerals, talent, doctors, nurses, universities and hardworking citizens, still be sending patients abroad for specialist treatment for conditions we should be treating here at home?”
This is not merely a health sector weakness. It is a national failure. It is a governance failure. It is a moral failure. From the colonial period, Zambia inherited a racially unequal and urban biased health system. After independence, the UNIP government expanded access and tried to correct historical injustice. Under the MMD, health reforms brought decentralisation, health boards and cost sharing experiments. Under the PF, there was visible infrastructure expansion, including health posts and district hospitals. Under the UPND Alliance led government, there has been recruitment of health workers and renewed policy emphasis on universal health coverage, but after all these eras, one stubborn truth remains, i.e, too many Zambians still cannot access reliable specialist diagnosis and treatment within their own country.
Cancer patients are still being referred outside Zambia. Heart patients are still looking abroad. Kidney patients still look abroad. Families still sell property, beg relatives, run fundraising appeals and wait helplessly while diseases progress. Meanwhile, those with political connections or public office often find a way to be evacuated. This is unacceptable.
It is unfathomable that in 2026, patients are referred from provincial hospitals to Lusaka for basic tests because machines are unavailable, broken down, poorly maintained or without reagents. It is unacceptable that central hospitals can have equipment that is packed up while poor citizens queue in pain. It is unacceptable that a nation can find money for political comfort, wasteful travel, unnecessary allowances and inflated procurement, but fail to maintain life saving machines.
Corruption kills. Corruption is not an abstract offence. When money meant for hospitals is stolen, people die. When procurement is inflated, patients die. When maintenance contracts are neglected, patients die. When medicines are missing, patients die. When diagnostic equipment is broken, disease advances silently.
A serious nation must not normalize medical evacuation. Medical evacuation must be the rare exception, not a permanent government programme.
India has made tremendous advances in healthcare. Mauritius has positioned itself in health tourism. Zambia can learn from them, but learning from India must not mean permanently exporting our patients to India. It must mean importing knowledge, systems, technology, discipline, specialist training and hospital management excellence into Zambia.
I propose the following urgent national measures:
1. Establish a fully equipped National Specialist Treatment Programme covering cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, neurosurgery, trauma, orthopaedics and advanced diagnostics.
2. Conduct a full audit of all cases referred abroad in the last 15 years: conditions, costs, hospitals used, outcomes and whether the same services can be built locally.
3. Equip the National Heart Hospital, Cancer Diseases Hospital, University Teaching Hospitals and all central hospitals with functioning modern equipment, not ceremonial machines bought for speeches.
4. Create a ring fenced Specialist Equipment Fund protected from political interference, with public quarterly reporting.
5. Recruit foreign specialists on fixed term contracts while aggressively training Zambian doctors, nurses, radiographers, biomedical engineers, oncologists, cardiologists, nephrologists and surgeons.
6. Establish regional specialist centres in Lusaka, Ndola, Livingstone and Kasama so that specialist medicine is not over centralised in Lusaka.
7. Introduce mandatory maintenance contracts and biomedical engineering units for every major machine bought by government.
8. Make corruption in health procurement a national security matter because theft in health is theft of life. Such offenses should be non bailable.
9. Build strategic partnerships with India, Mauritius, South Africa and other advanced health systems to bring treatment capacity into Zambia, not merely send patients out.
10. Publish an annual “Treatment Abroad Reduction Report” showing how many patients were referred outside Zambia, why they were referred, how much was spent, and what Zambia is doing to end that dependency.
This is a silent national crisis. It does not always make noise because the poorest people suffer quietly. Government must be judged by how it treats the patient who has no uncle in power, no minister to call, no money for India, and no voice loud enough to be heard.
Zambia must work for the poor. Zambia must work for the sick. Zambia must work for the forgotten.
We do not lack intelligence. We do not lack doctors. We do not lack examples to learn from. What we have lacked is disciplined national prioritisation, honest procurement, maintenance culture and political will.
At 62, Zambia must stop exporting its patients and start building a healthcare system worthy of its people.
Saviour Chishimba
President
United Progressive People — UPP