Promoting access to health through citizens’ action

On paper, Malawi’s health sector is a well fed cow. To put that in context, one just has to look at the 2024-25 national budget, where the health sector, through the Ministry of Health, was allocated a lion’s share, at K729.47 billion.

On the ground, though, the situation is different.

For evidence, one just has to go through a statement which Medical Council of Malawi (MCM) has issued, in which it indicates that six medical practitioners have been found guilty of different offences they committed while working in different hospitals across the country.

MCM Registrar Davie Zolowere indicates that they heard 12 disciplinary cases, of which five were from public facilities, six were from private healthcare service facilities while one did not involve any healthcare service facility.

Of interest is the fact that MCM has also found Kamuzu Central Hospital KCH), which is a public healthcare service facility, guilty for failing to implement what is recommend

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“KCH has been ordered to institutionalise the WHO surgical safety checklist in all its operating theatres within two months,” MCM indicates in the statement.

In short, what this means is that the public hospital failed to ensure that all the necessary equipment, in line with the WHO surgical safety checklist, was available to healthcare workers.

Availability of such tools would have enabled healthcare workers to execute their duties efficiently.

In is a reminder that public healthcare service facilities do not always have the money, with which to purchase requisite medical equipment, and other resources.

Mission hospitals are no exception.

And that is where citizens and corporate sector players come in.

Of late, a consortium of non-profit organisations—namely Patriots, Rotary and Lions clubs— have been donating medical equipment to healthcare centres across the country.

According to Patriots Chairperson Kamuzu Chibambo, this is because they want to contribute to improved healthcare service delivery in the country.

“That way, we seek to lessen challenges which healthcare service facilities face in the country,” Chibambo explains.