Malawi has 76% vacancy rate in health

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

National Organization of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi (NONM) has appealed to government to triple the number of healthcare workers for them to meet the recemmended nurse—patient ratio.

NONM executive director Dr. Dorothy Ngoma made the appeal in Thyolo on the sidelines of the “Girl-child Scholarship Presentation” ceremony.

Ngoma explained that Malawi needs not less than 16,000 practicing healthcare workers if the constraints rocking the country’s health sector are to be history.

“Currently, we’ve about 4,500 healthcare workers, which is very small. We need about 16,000 practicing, not just registered, but practicing nurses and midwives for us to effectively offer the services in the public health systems,” she said.

“Imagine, in this age Malawi has a 76 percent vacancy rate in the public health system. This is too high. We need to do something to close the gap,” Ngoma added.

She said there was need for more resources for training of girls and boys that would like to take up nursing profession. But the NONM boss commended government for providing K385 million, which Ngoma explained that it will be used for training 1,200 healthcare workers.

“We hope these will contribute significantly to the delivery of healthcare services in the country. But this is not adequate. We need more resources; we need businesspersons to come and support our cause. We know we’ve successful businesspersons in Malawi, can’t they sponsor even two students to study nursing at Malamulo?” she asked.

Dr. Ngoma observed that there is need for multisectoral approach to dealing with the current challenges in the health system and hence the need for all stakeholders to take part.

Meanwhile, NONM, Medins Sans Frontiers—Belgium (MSF) and Oxfam have embarked on a “I want to be a nurse!” campaign whose aim is to encourage children to aspire for the nursing profession as well as to consider working as health workers in general.

MSF Human Resource for Health Manager Amanda Banda said Friday that the campaign also aims at reminding all stakeholders in the healthcare system of the need to work towards improving conditions of service for healthcare workers.

“It’s envisaged that among others, some of the outcome indicators will be improved living and working conditions of the health workers, better salaries, and more training for the currently practicing professional as well as increased and sustained enrolments of the new students,” said Banda.

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