RU health centres struggle to referrals
Rumphi District Health Office is struggling to provide health care services in time due to shortage of ambulances for referral cases from its health centres.
The principal administrator Yohane Bilesi said the district is relying on three ambulances instead of five, which has left some pockets of the district not served.
This has prompted World Vision Malawi (WVM) to donate a vehicle to service the neglected areas of Mphompha and Chinyoli in Rumphi and Luzi in Mzimba.
“Currently we have three ambulances. One is serving Hewe, the other one is serving the lakeshore areas and Livingstonia and the last one is at the district hospital.
“But as a DHO, we need five. The Henga Valley and Mphompha need ambulances as well,” said Bilesi.
Mchiru, an umbrella body for area development committees (ADCs) at Mphompha, Chinyoli and Luzi, said lack of ambulances in the areas has led to avoidable deaths.
The organisation chairperson Golden Chirwa said people in the areas are lacking timely health care due to a poor terrain and lack of communication networks.
“In a month, we record at least four deaths that could be avoided if we had reliable mode of transportation,” said Chirwa.
He said that is the reason Mchiru engaged WVM to provide them with a vehicle to act as an ambulance.
WVM north zonal manager Lamech Chimphero said the organisation has donated the vehicle to serve an area they had a 15-year project that phased out in 2013.
Chimphero said the project also handed over six motorcycles to the community. n
