SOUTHERN Province Permanent Secretary Chileshe Mulenga yesterday took to task health personnel at Maramba and Libuyu clinics in Livingstone when he paid a surprise visit in the morning.

Dr Mulenga was visibly upset when he found that patients were not being attended to by 08:00 hours.

"This is almost 08:00 hours and the patients are not being attended to and your premises are not clean enough," he told nurses and other workers at Maramba Clinic.

Dr Mulenga said the clinic lacked the elements of commitment and care from health staff despite them being competent.

He said it was not fair that health members of staff were failing to follow the three 'Cs' of care, commitment and competence in discharging their duties.

The Permanent Secretary wondered why some patients were not being attended to despite some of them being in critical conditions.

"The minister of health wants you to use the three Cs- commitment, care, and competence in your operations to improve service delivery, but it's clearly absent here," he said.

At Maramba, Dr Mulenga found water leaking from pipes in the staff lavatory.

"You and me are paid by these same people so we need to look after them, they might look poor or dirty but they are our masters," he said.

He said Government expected employees in health and other sectors to be committed to providing quality services.

And at Libuyu Clinic, the registry clerk had not reported for work by 08:30 hours and patients were not being attended to while at Maramba Clinic the nurses were found chatting as patients waited.