The Ministry of Health is yet to employ 1222 health workers who graduated in 2015 from all the campuses of the Malawi College of Health Sciences.
The development comes amidst deteriorating health service delivery in the country due lack of funding in the health sector.
Speaking to The Daily Times, one of the graduates who opted for anonymity said the ministry has been making updates on recruitment during the month of July but no one has been employed yet.
“The system in the past was automatic, but it seems some policy changes are underway or maybe government just can’t afford it [employing] now. I understand there are some minor groups within [the employed graduates] trying to bring up the issue to the ministry but it’s still in the discussion phases while some of us have been going to the ministry to ask,” he said.
Commenting on the matter, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Adrian Chikumbe, said because of the public sector reforms, it is no longer automatic for the graduates to be employed by government once they complete their studies.
He said the new procedure is for government to advertise for the vacant positions, so that qualified candidates go through job interview like any other public servant.
“Just last week, we conducted interviews for pharmacist from College of Medicine. So yes we are aware of the graduates who are not employed but health reforms require us to conduct interviews and I cannot disclose when we will conduct the interviews,” he said.
In September 2016 another class will be graduating from the health sciences.
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