Bad patients Treatment at Ndola Teaching Hospital

At Ndola Teaching Hospital on the Copperbelt, one of Zambia’s major public referral facilities, patients are routinely directed to private laboratories located just outside its gates—raising questions about whether capacity constraints alone explain the practice, or whether deeper systemic and ethical concerns are at play. For Chungu Kapema, a Ndola resident, the experience was frustrating. “You go to a big hospital expecting everything to be done there.

But they tell you to go to a private lab. If you don’t have money, your treatment just stops,” Kapema remarked. Just outside the hospital along Nkana Road, a cluster of private laboratories operates within a short walking distance of the hospital—some only a few metres from the main gate.

This raises questions about why patients are being referred outside for services expected at a public referral hospital. Patients told Radio Icengelo that these referrals increase medical costs, delay treatment, and in some cases force families to abandon care altogether. Health workers and officials blame it on capacity constraints, such as shortages of reagents, frequent equipment breakdowns, and a lack of specialised staff.

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But insiders say capacity alone does not explain the scale of the problem. “Yes, sometimes capacity is an issue. But there are cases where equipment is available and still not used.

Some referrals raise serious questions,” said one of the workers in the hospital. Patients and health workers say tests that cost less than fifty kwacha at public facilities can cost four times more at private laboratories. “I did a test at Ndola Teaching Hospital costing K50 but again I was referred to do the same test at a private facility and it costs K700.

I was forced to start searching for a cheaper facility because I didn’t have the K700,” said Maluba Sitali, a patient. Beyond the financial burden, referrals also create delays, as patients must return to the hospital with results for interpretation, slowing treatment further.

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