Employ 300 nurses, activist pleads with Malawi govt
Firebrand nurses activist Dorothy Ngoma is pleading with the government to take back 339 nurses it fired after the High Court of Malawi told a nurses organisation and government go back to mediation.
Ngoma, executive director of National Organisation of Nurses in Malawi (NONM) said since the mediation was completed, the government is delaying in taking back the nurses who hit headlines last year after the government fired them enmasse soon after giving them appointment letters.
Government cited lack of money as the major reason to offload them even before they were loaded on government payroll.
“We have been to court, the court sent us back for mediation. The government lawyers and our lawyers have been engaged in talks, they all agree that what the government did was wrong,” said Ngoma.
She said now that the Health Commission is in place, it should conduct interviews for the recruitment of the nurses.
“We are concerned that the process has stalled, we are unhappy,” she said.
The issue of the nurses caused a storm last year as there were demonstrations to force the cash strapped government employ them.
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Governments are there to stop suffering if you cannot employ and pay the nurses after studying 4 years at your colleges allow the nurses to travel to other countries to find work.
If not these nurses suffer and lose their skills waiting for employment here.
If the government paid the education agree on a repayment scheme should workers find foreign employment,
The solution to this is simple. 1) Training colleges should halve the number of enrollees. It was the same government which forced the colleges to double if not triple the matriculation of new entrants into the profession. Some of us were against this at boardroom level. 2) government should lift the ‘ban’ if not rescind it’s policy of preventing nurse/midwives practitioners from seeking jobs overseas and indeed elsewhere. With the above in effect, it will not be so long from now when we will hear the same government crying foul. The health system as it stands has high vacancy rate… Read more »
Malawians,are you cursed or what? Hiring 300 nurses under such economic quagmires,where is your rotten government going to get the funds to pay them while at the same time it struggles to pay the existing ones?Tragically,the national hospitals are empty of medicines,how are these Nurses going to treat our suffering patients? It is true what Keneth D.Kaunda said once: BANDA WAS RULING ZOMBIES.I now recall what Masauko Chipembere said: MALAWI,HAVING LOST BRILLIANT,COMPETENT AND INTELLECTUAL YOUNG LEADERS,IT WOULD TAKE MYRIADS OF DECADES BEFORE THE GOVERNMENTS STABILIZE BOTH POLITICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY..What a Prophetic remarks,this is correctly what we are going through.GOD BLESS… Read more »
The Uk has started hiring foreign nurses again. If I were a nurse I would not waste time with Mathanyula’s government , I would be gone . Paja alibe pulobulemu
Tonde says,
A Ngomwa, muzikhala ngati mutu wanu umakoka. The Government is saying it does not have money to pay these newly recruited nurses and you are forcing it to employee them. Are you the one who will be paying them ?
Do not argue for the sake of arguing, but rather with critical thinking. If these people are employed and after sometime no payment/salary, won’t we hear you complaining again ?
There is massive shortfall of nurses in the UK and the government just announced a couple of days ago that it is now very open to employ nurses even from non-EU member states. There you are you can go enmass rest assured that you will be employed. Mine is just free advice, ndapita.
The government must only employ them if it can pay them and ofcourse if indeed there are gaps that have to be filled. We already have a bloated civil service. I understand we have too many unnecessary filled post.
Each and every year nurses and doctors are churned out of universities and colleges just like any other profession. The truth is the govt can employ every one!
@Majoti, are you a stranger that there is acute shortage of medical personnel in our public hospitals? Try to visit any public hospital and appreciate the problem.