NB hospital in crisis
Nkhata Bay District Hospital has suspended some outreach clinics and—like other district hospitals—has resorted to feeding patients once a day as budget cuts hit hard.
To provide proper health care across the district, the hospital needs over K500 million ($954 198), but government only allocated K150 million ($286 260) in the 2015/2016 budget.
lot of pressure
With just a month into the financial year, the low allocation has seen the hospital struggling to run outreach clinics, maintain ambulance services and feed patients, among other services.
Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development spokesperson Nations Msowoya did not respond to our questions as he was said to be in a meeting.
However, he earlier said the budget allocated to the health sector was the best government could provide and hospitals have to utilise the little resources at their disposal prudently.
Speaking in an interview after presidential adviser on national unity and parliamentary affairs Simon Vuwa Kaunda donated 40 bags of maize from Raiply Malawi and other items to the hospital, Nkhata Bay district health officer (DHO) Albert Mkandawire said the hospital serves a big population in hard-to-reach areas and it is failing to provide quality healthcare delivery with the current allocation.
He said: “We cannot be providing food when we cannot even run ambulances. That is why we have suspended some outreach clinics.”
On his part, Kaunda said the donation was an effort to complement government efforts in running the health sector and he called on other companies and the public to do the same.
He said government allocates enough money to hospitals, but sometimes it becomes hard for hospitals to budget since they cannot predict the number of patients that will access health services in a particular year.
