Disconnecting water, electricity from hospitals is criminal
Malawi is run on laws. Chapter four of Malawi’s republican Constitution lays out the rights of Malawians and residents. These rights include the right to life for all. This right, like others, implies that institutions providing protection of life must be supported politically and financially.
Annually the National Budget dedicates a good chunk of financial resources to the Ministry of Health because that ministry leads the protection and defence of the right to life. Additionally, the health sector receives substantial sums of money from international organisations for the same purpose. Malawi’s health policy allows free access to public health facilities, those provided by the Christian Health Association of Malawi (Cham).
The policy justification is very clear and plausible. The majority of Malawians cannot afford paying for health services and are not personally insured. Their only health insurance is the public budget.
From the public health budget, the public and Cham health facilities are expected to procure drugs and other materials, pay for water and electricity, and buy nutritious food for their patients.
However, stories coming from public and Cham hospitals are distressing. At one health facility in Ntcheu District, some elderly people seeking health services, and therefore, their right to life, were once sent back because there weren’t enough drugs and the few drugs remaining were reserved for children and youths. The elderly outpatients were told, so we heard, that they were too old to live and should just go back home to die.
Similar stories have come to us from other health facilities. The elderly are too old to live. They must die because drugs are in short supply in public and Cham hospitals. Where do the private hospitals, most of which are run by the very people that run public and Cham hospitals, get the drugs? And why are public and Cham hospitals always facing drug shortages when annually we, Malawians and foreign governments and institutions fund the health sector?
Nkhata Bay District Hospital, fondly called Mkondezi, once received two pregnant women from a health facility in the district that could not deliver their babies because of complications. At Mkondezi the two expectant mothers were immediately taken to the operation theatre for C-Section delivery. As the doctors were assisting the women, power went off because the diesel generators had run out of fuel. The two women and their three babies died. Three babies because one expectant mother was carrying twins.
Public hospital runs out of backup power fuel? Why? Whose fault? Five people denied their right to life because of lack of power at public hospital?
We have heard similar stories from elsewhere and they make very sad reading. One facility went for months without water because the water board had taken away its service for delayed bill payment. The water board is a public service provider. The hospital is public service provider. Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) is a public service provider (forget the nonsensical illogicality being bandied around that Escom is private power utility because government cannot own a private institution).
Genuine Prof Dr Joyce Befu, MEGA-1 is angry. And when she is angry we automatically become angry. From today onwards, shortage of drugs from public and Cham hospital will be deemed an act of aggression equivalent to premeditated murder.
From today onwards, disconnecting water and electricity from public and Cham hospitals will be considered a criminal act whose minimum sentence is one life imprisonment. For every person who dies because of hospital negligence, that hospital director, doctors, pharmacists, and nurses on duty shall be charged with criminal negligence.
From today onwards, all drugs from all private hospitals run by people working in public hospitals shall be confiscated and taken back to public hospitals. From today onwards, Escom and water boards shall be deemed accomplices in murder if they disconnect power and water from public hospitals.
