St. Paul's Hospital

Situated in the northern corner of Zambia, close to the border with Zaïre, this is a very well managed hospital with about 200 beds for inpatients, providing outpatient and preventive services, and having a training school for enrolled nurses.

There is an establishment for three doctors. Usually two or three of these are filled, usually by young doctors from Europe on volunteer or church-organised two-year contracts.

They have a laboratory capable of doing basic haematology, parasitology, bacteriology, biochemistry and scrological investigations. Histology is sent to Lusaka, and involves long delays.

The Hospital is on mains power-supply, which is rather unreliable, but they have a standby diesel generator. Radiography is available.

The operating theatre has good basic equipment to deal with emergency surgery and limited cold surgery, eg hernias. Anaesthesia is administered by clinical assistants.

There is a good all-weather road linking it to the provincial capital, Mansa. An airstrip at the hospital allows for visits by Mission Medic-Air and the Zambia Flying Doctor Service, and for evacuation of patients. There is radio communication with the Copperbelt, but the telephone line is unreliable.

Funding is largely from Government sources, supplemented by Missionary organisations. This applies to medicines, and equipment also. There are problems with maintenance of equipment, largely due to lack of trained personnel.