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The only eye specialist at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), who is also in charge of the whole Southern Region, Dr. Khumbo Kalua, on Thursday put down his working tools and cancelled theatre appointments, protesting against government’s failure to pay and house him.
A patient who was supposed to be treated by the doctor but did not want to be named said there was a “very long queue” at the hospital waiting to be operated on and to get treatment.
“But we’ve been told that Dr. Kalua is not working today as he is not happy with the treatment he is getting from government,” said the patient.
Kalua confirmed in a separate interview that he was not working because issues pertaining to his welfare have not been addressed have not been addressed since September when he returned from training in Australia.
Kalua said despite “numerous contacts with QECH Director and Ministry of Health officials”, he has received no salary and has not been housed since three months ago.
“Since my return, I have performed eye operations restoring sight among the blind but I may not continue offering services to thousands of people who need my attention because of the treatment I am getting,” said Kalua.
He said he was contemplating picking up job offers he has had from Tanzania and Uganda.
“QECH will soon be having an eye hospital. If I leave, this whole hospital will not have a government eye doctor. Expatriate doctors are paid five times more than a local doctor is paid,” said Kalua.
He said there were more than 100,000 eye patients in the country and that more than half of these have had their sight restored through simple operations done by his office.
Kalua lamented government’s failure to “take care of its local experts”, saying that is why the problem of brain drain was on the increase.
“Imagine, government spent up to US $60 000 to have me trained as an eye specialist. If I leave it means the country loses out,” said Kalua.
QECH Director Dr. Ibrahim Idana said no patient had gone to him to complain of any problems in the eye department.
“There are no problems that I know of. Nobody has come to me to complain,” said Idana.
But Director of Clinical Services in the Ministry of Health Rex Mpazanje confirmed that there were some problems involving housing and paying Kalua and promised to “smooth out the issues with him”.
He said the house Kalua was to stay in had been sealed off after the ministry failed to settle “accumulated bills” with Malawi Housing Corporation.
He blamed the problems on the government payroll system.
“It takes some time to sort out salary issues when one has just joined the government. Dr. Kalua has just been introduced to the government payroll since he only started working three months ago. I hope he will get his pay at the end of this month,” said Mpazanje.
He said government will ask an expatriate doctor from College of Medicine to take care of patients at QECH while Kalua is having his problems sorted out.
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