Malawi’s healthcare system now ‘in crisis’: CSOs calls on govt action
The Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and Center for the Development of People (CEDEP) have called on governmen to arrest the current health crisis saying it;s a serious violation of the right to health.
Malawi’s deepening economic crisis is severely affecting the government’s ability to fund public health delivery and restricting poor people’s access to health care.
CHRR Executive Director Timothy Ntambo and CEDEP Director Gift Trapence have said it is “sheer mockery “for government to spend MK300 million during Independence celebrations when people are dying from preventable diseases due to shortage of resources.
“We hav noted with alarm reports of a seriously deteriorating situation in the country’s public hospitals resulting from severe financial resource constraints. We have reliably gathered that most of the country’s hospitals have run short of essential drugs, with others resorting to rationing the meals given to patients,” reads a statement by the two organisations made available to Nyasa Times.
“Worse still, many hospitals have parked their fleet of vehicles, including ambulances. It is sad to note that this is happening when we are hearing a lot of corruption issues in the country. This is also happening when the leadership is busy wasting public resources conducting one celebration after another,” reads part of the statement.
Contiued the statement:”Have we, as a country, started normalising misery? If the costly Independence celebrations were not mockery enough, then we, at CHRR and Cedep, find the State banquet that government recently organized an insult of the highest to order to the suffering Malawians.
“Let government shelve the parties and, instead, rescue the persistent funding crisis in the public health sector. It goes without saying that the current situation in the country’s hospitals is tantamount to denying Malawians their right to health and life.”
CHRR and Cedep have called upon government to allocate sufficient budgetary allocations to Ministry of Health.
Malawi government is a signatory to the 2001 Abuja Declaration which calls upon member states to allocate at least
15 per cent of total national budget to health.
This year’s national budgetary allocations to health paints even a gloomier picture.
In the 2015/16 financial year, government allocated a paltry MK77.4 billion to Ministry of Health, an allocation
which is only 8.5 per cent of total MK901 billion national budget. This is pathetic.
“In fact, if this is not an abdication of obligations on the part of government, then we, at CHRR and Cedep, don’t know what is. Time has come for government to find a lasting solution to the deplorable situation in the country’s hospitals.
“Otherwise, depending on external partners to support the health ministry with financial resources cannot be a sustainable solution. As CHRR and Cedep, we stand ready to be part of further consultations by on how best to arrest the perennially disconcerting situation in the public hospitals,” reads the statement.
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Health is the centre of anything,why should this government pay a deaf ear to all these Health problems on the expense of sick it is very pathetic to see patients dying and the President is very happy together with the finance Minister.Don’t pretend as if things are ok when not.
Malawi a country full of idiots good at handclapping everything.A bottle of Fanta and ban on 6th July was enough to silence them.
Imaging QECH being given 6million instead of 30million . They are calling down in every department and yet iwo busy mapwefupwefu
u just want to steal money from your sponsors, had they known! malawians no body to be patriotic? all the time thinking of who to milk? and these so called donors do they know all these noisy ngos are from north? they are bitter cause they have no chance to rule due to minority thereby bringing havok to frustrate their fellows! forgetting that the process affects ordinary citizens than the leaders. dispite creating problems they blame gvment, taking advantage of the misunderstanding pple.whatever are punishing malawians as per above
Thats very great
Let us put sensible comments only
If you go to each and every Ministry, right from the The Chief Secretary, down to accounts Clerks, and see how many houses, mostly in low density ares of Lilongwe, each one has, how many and what type of cars they and their families drive, how many trips their spouses and family members make to China, Dubai and the East in general….what schools they send their kids to, their lifestyles…etc….and then take a look at their INCOME, then you will appreciate the density of how much is drained from the government coffers. I do not see much left for other… Read more »
Mtambo and Trapence; you blew out of proportion, the meager chunk of money that was given to Gertrude Mutharika’s BEAM by National Aids Commission to the extent that Donors of of NAC raised eye brows and packed their bags and stopped giving aid. This you all did out of greed. You wanted to earn a name and get funding for your now useless NGOs….so that you could feed your fat bellies. My take is Gertrude Mutharika was not going to use the funds for her personal gain. Opportunity Costing shows that losing NAC funding was a worse “Bad” compared to… Read more »
2019 NDIZAYIMANSO !!
2019 NDIZAYIMANDO !!
2019 NNdizayimanso !!
ETI AKULU AKULU ???
E eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee !!!
Atumbuka akuba mankhwala koopsa amabisa mmatumba ndikumagulitsa.Amoxoni 30 k250.Wina wa pabotomu wamanga nyumba ziiri ku area 36.Ngati mukufuna umboni pitani komweko.