Ministry of Health walk-in interviews going on well
Walk-in interviews for health care workers are going on well just hours after a court injunction restraining the ministry of Health from conducting the interviews was withdrawn.
This followed discussions between government officials and lawyers for aggrieved serving health care workers who had obtained an interim order stopping the exercise.
Our visit to interview centres in all the regions showed that the interviews were going on well as the government wants to fill the 48 percent vacancy rate of health and medical workers with a generous funding from Global Fund.
Earlier, Secretary for Health Samson Mndolo but also lawyers from Jivason and Company, who represented the aggrieved health care workers agreed that the interviews should go ahead.
Says Mndolo in a statement: “In the discussions that were moderated by the Honourable the Attorney General, the parties have agreed to have the court order lifted through a consent order having understood that the prospective recruitment of healthcare workers has been wholly funded by Malawi’s development partners.
“The vacancy rate of healthcare workers within the Ministry of Health is currently hovering around 48%.
“As one way of addressing this shortage, the Government secured a grant from Global Fund to be applied towards recruiting additional healthcare workers. It is understood that the recruitment of healthcare workers would significantly help to reduce the shortage of healthcare workers in public health facilities.”
Those who obtained the order argued that the government was being discriminatory by not allowing them to attend the interviews, but Mndolo says serving healthcare workers would be allowed to compete for promotion during promotional interviews to be conducted in due course.
