Health workers in Malawi claim that the government is ignoring the shortages of drugs and equipment that are crippling the country's hospitals.
Patients have been told to bring in their own syringes while the theatre and labour ward at the main Bwaila maternity hospital in the capital, Lilongwe has had temporary closures because they don't have equipment supplies to work with, according to a notice on a wall. Regular power cuts are also impacting on the economy.
The government blamed the shortages on the pandemic and a shortage of foreign currency, but it has more than halved the drug budget since 2019. In May, health ministry officials admitted they would struggle to find essential drugs because there wasn't enough money.
One worker at Lilongwe's Kamuzu Central Hospital said the government was downplaying a very big issue Gloves, syringes, giving sets used to administer fluids cotton, gauze and other essential supplies are in very short supply. Patients are told to buy syringes when they go to the health centres. They said that they continue to receive patients from health centres simply because they don't have essential supplies.
At a health centre in Mulanje, about 230 miles from the capital, women arriving for family planning implants were sent to buy syringes.
The Guardian reported last year that nearly half of Malawi's district hospitals had closed their theatres because of lack of anaesthetics.
The association of Malawian midwives and the National Organisation of Nurses accused the government of ignoring a worsening problem and instead painting a rosy picture. Our nurses and midwives are facing challenges on the ground and we find it very illogical for the authorities at the ministry of health to claim everything is normal at health facilities.
They should put measures in place to make sure that no lives are lost due to lack of supplies, fuel for prolonged blackouts.
Nurses, midwives and other health professionals are unable to resuscitate patients needing oxygen therapy, put up intravenous infusions that provide a lifeline in acutely sick patients, young and old, because of poor lighting, professionally conduct deliveries in labour wards, remove umbilical cords around babies necks, perform vacuum extractions, and perform vacuum extractions. Joel Moyo, the president of the Anaesthesia Association of Malawi, said hospitals can't get medicines or are receiving expired medicines.
For spinal needles we use on pregnant mothers, we use local cannulas, which are not recommended. Moyo said that we don't have some drugs for general surgeries and other supplies like syringes.
The Central Medical Stores Trust CMST, which buys hospitals supplies, was blamed for the ministry of health.
Minister Adrian Chikumbe said that the central medical stores have a delegated authority to procure and store the drugs. The trust said it can't buy from suppliers because of a shortage of currency. Spokesperson Herbert Chandilanga said: Each hospital orders drugs from us and we would need details of the drugs that are missing and the hospitals where the drugs are unavailable before commenting.