Malawi spends K467m on new ambulances

Malawi Government has purchased 28 new Toyota Land Cruiser ambulances worth K467 million (about $1.6 million) to ease transport problems in district hospitals.

The ambulances have been distributed in all district hospitals nationwide.

Speaking during the handover of the vehicles to district health officers (DHOs), Minister of Health, who is also the Vice-President, Khumbo Kachali said government wants to ensure that delivery of services in hospitals is improved.

“To reach this moment, we have extraordinarily invested a lot in the health sector transport system. We have struggled as a sector in the transport system and we do continue to bear the consequences of this gap when we fail to respond to emergencies.

“It is encouraging to see that we are able to make this investment even in times of constrained resources,” said Kachali.

Deputy Minister of Health Halima Daudi advised DHOs to take care of the vehicles as they were bought using taxpayers’ money.

“We do not want the vehicles to be misused because many rural hospitals struggle to provide transport to patients from very remote areas due to sometimes misuse of resources,” said Daudi.