Zambia’s first lady, Christine Kaseba, has called for more investment in the country’s communications sector to enhance health service delivery.

Kaseba said using mobile technology has the potential to improve the turnaround time for the early infant diagnosis of diseases such as HIV.

“There is need for continued investment in the communications industry to enhance health service delivery and improved communication of health emergencies through mobile technologies,” she said.

She also added that there was need to ensure availability of electricity and internet in all the country’s districts in order to enhance electronic medical and SmartCare systems.

SmartCare is an electronic medical records tracking system that is being implemented in the country. The vision for the system is to implement complete electronic health records for every Zambian citizen.

To ensure the speed implementation of SmartCare system, Kaseba said there is need for the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (Zesco) and the Zambia Telecommunication Company (Zamtel) to harmonise the use of their optic fibre networks to advantage rural people.

Kaseba said there is no need for the two parastatal companies to have a parallel optic fibre system when the community needs the system.

Both Zesco and Zamtel run their own optic fibre networks and efforts by the ministries of communications and energy to harmonise the two have so far proved futile.