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| National |
| Ministry worried with resource constraints |
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by
Juliet Chimwaga, 05 October 2004
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08:47:54
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Ministry of health has expressed concern over shortage of orthopaedists — medical personnel that deal with injuries and diseases of the bones and muscles — and other medical equipment in the country, a condition that the orthopaedists have described as the country’s trauma.
Secretary for Health Richard Pendame expressed the concern when he was opening a two-day conference of orthopaedists in Malawi on Saturday in Mangochi.
Although few hospitals have about two or three orthopaedists, Pendame said “many of the district hospitals have only one orthopaedist and none in Nkhotakota and others, a condition that cannot tally with the present prevalence of accidents in the country”.
“From January to August this year, 890 cases of road accidents have been reported in our hospitals, from which 104 people died on the spot and 500 serious cases were admitted,” he said, adding that it is a situation that cannot be effectively managed by the few orthopaedists the country has.
Speaking in an interview, patron of Malawi Orthopaedic Association Nyengo Mkandawire, an orthopaedist at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, said some hospitals have more than one orthopaedist while some do not have.
“It’s really a difficult situation to deal with but it will be looked into to ensure equal distribution,” said Mkandawire.
The orthopaedists said while two or three orthopaedists per hospital are not even enough, they are also facing problems of lack of materials in their departments.
Commenting on the issue, Pendame said the ministry will not manage to buy orthopaedic equipment because it is very expensive.
“The budget allocation for health ministry is too minimal to cater for orthopaedic materials, therefore the ministry will not be able to buy the materials,” he said.
Pendame also cautioned the way all medical personnel generally handle or communicate to patients.
“It’s my hope that you will take issues of medical ethics into consideration. Check your attitude to patients, treat both paying and non-paying patients equally, use medical instruments only for the intended purposes to avoid complications that can easily be prevented,” he advised them.
“Work hard and impress the public, that is condemning us now, to commend our work again,” he added.
During the conference, the orthopaedists also expressed interest to work together with other departments which deal with accident prevention because it is the orthopaedists who deal with the injured people directly.
Speaking in an interview, the association’s former public relations officer McLean Sosono said there is need that even the media should also confront the orthopaedists themselves on issues concerning accidents in the country.
“We are the ones who deal with and treat the traumatising conditions of people involved in accidents because, that is why we want to work hand in hand with the departments that are campaigning against accidents in the country,” he said.
In Karonga, the district hospital’s orthopaedist Smith Mphepo said when they noticed that there are many accidents occurring because of too many bicycles and, ox-cats they started working with their community police in preventing accidents that are caused between the ox-cats, bicycles, and cars.
“We agreed with the whole community that every bicycle should be registered with the community police who make sure that both rider and the bicycle are fit for the road,” said Mphepo adding that it is practical and is really happening successfully now.
During the conference orthopaedists also presented different kinds of cases and how they were treated in their respective hospitals.
“This is also time for continuing medical education programme in which we share ideas from different experience that we incur in the hospitals we come from,” said Sosono.
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