Workers in public hospitals stage peaceful demo, asks parliament to intervene

Government has come under intense pressure to resuscitate the collapsing public health service by improving the welfare of both health workers and patients.

This was a message sent on Friday by public hospital workers in Lilongwe, Dowa and Nkhata Bay.

The health workers that included doctors and nurses, marched peacefully from Kamuzu Central Hospital to Parliament building at city centre, Lilongwe where they presented a petition containing numerous grievances to chairlady of parliament’s health committee, Juliana Lunguzi.

Among other issues, the hospital workers cited the appalling working conditions such as lack of medicine, health workers, medical drugs and food for patients.

Lunguzi, a registered nurse herself assured the health workers, who were in their uniforms that parliament would debate the critical issues raised in the petition.

She said as a health worker herself, she understands the critical condition in which the health workers are and parliament would do all it can to reverse the situation.

Similar peaceful demonstrations also happened in Dowa and Nkhata Bay where health workers presented their petitions to officials at their respective district commissioner offices.

In Chikhwawa on Thursday, Press Corporation officials were surprised to learn that a hospital kitchen, which they had sponsored to build, will not be used as government has no money to buy food and prepare it for the patients at the hospital.

Christopher Guta, who handed over the rehabilitated kitchen building, was told food preparation at the hospital was suspended due to cash flow problems and patients are being told to seek food from their relations.

District Commissioner Bester Mandele said apart from food shortages, there is acute shortage of drugs at the hospital as malaria cases continue to rise up, saying statistics at the hospital shows 45 percent of patients at the hospital suffer from malaria.