Malawi nurses slap govt with court injunction over employment ro

Over 300 nurses who were supposed to sit for interviews Tuesday to get employment in public hospitals will have to wait a little longer as Nurses and Midwives Organisation of Malawi has obtained a court injunction against the holding of the interviews.

Dorothy Ngoma, executive director of National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives confirmed Monday afternoon court injunction and is advising the nurses not to go to interview avenues.

“The interviews will not take place until there is an interparty hearing on the matter,” said Ngoma.

The nurses and midwives body says the nurses cannot sit for the interviews since the government already offered them appointment letters, an indication that they were now on government payroll.

The government withdrew the letters later citing lack of money to pay the nurses monthly salary.

However, after pressure from civil society groups, the government said it would hire 200 out of the over 300 nurses and called them for interviews slated for Tuesday.

“We are advising the nurses not to show up for the interviews in Lilongwe until the matter is heard in court,” said the firebrand Ngoma.

Civil society groups in Malawi have organised peaceful demonstrations over collapsing health services in the impoverished country, citing lack of medicine, health personnel including nurses and doctors and rationing of food to patients who are now given one meal a day in most public hospitals due to severe budget cuts in hospitals as there is cashflow problems at Capital Hill, the seat of government.

The government recently came under severe criticism for failing to hire over 50 medical doctors from College of Medicine, 18 of whom have secured jobs in Lesotho.