Situational assessment of physical rehabilitation services in Zambia: issues and challenges

The necessity to enhance physical rehabilitation services in Zambia has been recognised. To achieve this through expanding human resources for health in rehabilitation and increasing service coverage, it is essential to comprehensively understand the current issues and challenges in physical rehabilitation within the country. This paper aimed to conduct a situational assessment of physical rehabilitation services in Zambia.

The World Health Organisation's Template for Rehabilitation Information Collection, a Systematic Assessment of the Rehabilitation Situation component, was used to collect data. This template provided a specialised framework for data analysis. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists.

Zambia has weak Leadership and Governance for physical rehabilitation, with no provincial or district rehabilitation satellite offices. While 0.1% of the total health budget is reserved for rehabilitation, the budget for physical rehabilitation is unspecified. In addition, there needs to be more services at community and primary health care levels.

There is an unequal distribution of physical rehabilitation services in Zambia, a shortage of skilled physical rehabilitation professionals and a lack of policy direction. Community health workers trained to specialise in physical rehabilitation could be considered in rendering physical rehabilitation services to address coverage.