Malawi public hospitals in districts are facing financial problems and they are scaling down services which medical experts have said will potentially lead to more preventable deaths.
MP Juliana Lunguzi: I am getting calls from DHOs across the country about health crisis
One of the hospital which is scaling its services is Chiradzulu, where District Health Officer , Dr Chinomba Gama in a letter to Secretary of Health in the Ministry of Health, informs that the decisionnot to offer some crucial services is due to “severely inadequate financial resources.”
According to the letter seen by Nyasa Times, the Chiradzulu District Hospital benefits from NORAD funding and the last time they received was in April, 2015.
Ministry of Health has also not given Chiradzulu its funding fro May and June.
Dr Gama said the situation was also the same in many other district hospitals.
He said the situation will create “poor quality of health services which will lead to increased number of preventable death that will happen if nothing is done about the current financial status.”
Chiradzulu like many other district hospitals cannot afford fuel for the staff bus, unable to run the fleet of ambulances, food rationing for patients, unable to pay Locum allowances for nurses and clinicians.
Health Parliamentary Committee Chairperson Juliana Lunguzi said she is receiving phone calls from district health officer across the country that “patients are getting one meal a day; Mangochi has parked its ambulances, Lilongwe is providing one meal a day, everywhere people are struggling.”
Recently the Finance Ministry spokesperson Nations Msowoya said government was disbursing resources to the DHOs according to what was allocated in the budget.