Chilima proposes alternative healthcare financing for Malawi

Vice President Saulos Chilima challenged stakeholders to seriously and deliberately consider and define alternative healthcare financing, stressing that financing “free” healthcare service is proving difficult and unsustainable.

Chilima made the remarks in Lilongwe at the launch of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Malawi recently.

“Faced with shrinking resources and difficulty in organizing its traditional “free” care for all health services, Malawi has to seriously and deliberately consider and define alternative health care financing. This has been a topic of numerous workshops, taskforces and meetings but it’s time to make a decision and implement that which has been suggested,” he said.

Chilima emphasized that Malawi cannot talk about universal access if the country does not look at how it is going to resource that access.

He said there is no need for Malawians to try to analyze what they cannot do, but instead look at how great Malawi is and work towards realizing that potential.

And turning to the just launched College of Physicians and Surgeons in Malawi, the Vice President said he was particularly pleased that the college is being launched at the time the Tonse Alliance administration is soul searching on how to stand on how Malawi can stand on her own.

Chilima therefore reminded the members of the college, who are medical doctors, that the table on which healthcare issues are discussed and agreed upon in the country is a round table.

“It is a table of equals with different functions. It is a table occupied by a team that only succeeds if all are able to do their part. Your expertise is very valuable and badly needed but it should complement that of others in the team. Around this table are all cadres of health care workers and they all bring important contributions to the conversation,” he emphasized.

However, Chilima observed that the greatest tragedy of the country is the educated people, stressing that they are letting Malawians down with their high levels of knowledge they acquired in colleges.

In her remarks, Ombudsman Martha Chizuma challenged the new college to assume the responsibility and come up with interventions that can help address the real problems that Malawi has been experiencing in regards to the delivery of quality healthcare service.

Chizuma observed that the problem is that Malawians like doing or acting completely different from what they are meant or set out to do.

“The greatest sin we have committed against our country is to pretend that we are doing something about our problems when in fact we are not.

Another sin is to cloth our interventions in some form of nobility, legality and professionalism when deep down our hearts we know that we are doing anything but.  It is better just not to do it. Real people are hurt because of this. Your own country has been hit hard because of this,” she said.