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Health delivery remains a dream, says Mwawa
By
George Ntonya - 25-06-2002 |
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For a population of nearly 11 million, there are only 60 ambulances for government hospitals and health centres in Malawi.
Health and Population Minister Yusuf Mwawa made the stunning revelation in his ministerial statement to the House yesterday, saying despite government’s efforts to improve the health delivery system in the country the situation has not improved over the past three decades.
While World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that the country should have at least 870 doctors for the current population, there are only 187 and 500 nurses, the minister said.
“We need at least an extra 800 [doctors] but are, in fact, training only 40 a year. Assuming that the population of Malawi doesn’t grow, and assuming that none of our current doctors dies or leaves Malawi, it will take a minimum of 40 years to meet this WHO recommendation,” the minister told the House.
Mwawa said there is need for 3,850 nurses for the country’s 22 district hospitals, adding that the country has a shortage of 6,000 nurses.
Of the 1,055 vacancies for medical assistant posts, only 391 are filled and of the 462 clinical officer posts, only 241 are filled, he explained.
The minister said the government has decided to increase the number of students in medical schools and colleges as a way of arresting the situation.
According to him, the government will now be training 30 auxiliary nurses each year for each of the 27 districts and 120 auxiliary nurses in two years for all central hospitals and Zomba Psychiatric Hospital.
“This means that in two years we will train a total of 2,220 for the entire nation,” he said, adding that an auxiliary nurse is a person with one year training and works in a hospital under direct supervision of a fully qualified nurse. |
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