Body demands mass recruitment of nurses, midwives

Nurses and Midwives Organization of Malawi (NONM) has said government must decisively consider recruiting more nurses and midwives into the system saying they are, by far, falling short in human resource.

The body says it does not make “meaningful sense” for health facilities across the country to be running without nurses and midwives when hundreds qualified ones are wasting away in their homes and villages.

NONM’s Charles Sinyiza told the media that all along—beginning last fiscal year—they have been pushing for an allotment of K2.7 billion from the Ministry of Finance but nothing has happened.

“That failed. Now we thought there was going to be K800 million for us but that, too, has not happened. We also heard a rumour of K500 million but that, too, is not coming through. It is sad and unfortunate to those that need our services,” said Sinyiza.

He added that because of the phenomenon, some expectant women in Kasungu actually had to protest because of shortage of midwives.

“But what is very disturbing is that there are hundreds of qualified young men and women fresh from colleges and universities who are supposed to be serving across the country and yet they are not employed. Yet government spent and continues to spend even more on others yet they will still remain unemployed when they finish,” wondered Sinyiza.

But in a separate interview Ministry of Finance spokesperson, Davies Sado, said there was “no way” government could recruit everyone at a go.

“Money will be released by Treasury. There will be employment but we cannot employ everyone at once,” said Sado.

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