Malawi govt fails to send vulnerable citizens to foreign hospitals: Sends famous, powerful, rich people

Government has 175 Malawians who need to seek foreign medical treatment in South Africa and India for heart and cancer ailments but ministry of Health officials are conceding this is a tall order.

This comes after some sections of society expressed concern that most of these are as younger as five year olds and young women yet the government says it has no money to send them abroad whilst sending Gwanda Chakuamba, now a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) turncoat  twice to hospitals in South Africa and India.

However others say Chakuamba has done a lot for the politics of the country, fighting colonialists then Dr. Kamuzu Banda later fought Bingu wa Mutharika and Bakili Muluzi.

Ministry of Health spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe said the desire of the government was to send everybody who is on the list abroad for treatment but lack of money is the set back.

He said during the 2015 and 2016 financial year, the ministry asked for K950 million for the exercise but only K220 million was released before another K500 million.

Chikumbe said the money is still not enough as only 74 have managed to receive the foreign specialist treatment and 175 are still on the waiting list.

Some people however say some of the people who have accessed the money for the foreign treatment are already rich only that they are connected to the powerful DPP elite.