By Brenda Kayo, Jarson Malowa & Blessings Gondwe:
A strike by nurses and physician assistants Monday brought Malawi’s already fragile health system to its knees as patients failed to access basic services in government hospitals.
Among others, the health workers want government to increase locum, risk, professional and top-up allowances to match the rising cost of living following the 44 percent devaluation of the Kwacha which was effected in November last year.
In Lilongwe, the nurses and physicians were spotted lazing around their workplaces with some of them only attending to emergencies and skeleton staff deployed to help admitted patients.
Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) Director Jonathan Ng’oma said the facility would ensure those in need of emergency services were assisted accordingly.
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“We have put in place a team of skeleton staff which is attending to emergency issues. We are providing the services to those in dire need, only that we will not have our clinics open,” Ng’oma said.
In several other parts of the country, the healthcare workers were seen singing and dancing outside wards demanding that their concerns should be addressed.
KCH Senior Nursing Officer Andrew Ahmed Tambuli said the health workers would not return to work until government met their demands.
“Since February, 2024, government has not honoured what we agreed.
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We have been engaging authorities but we are not getting any conclusive feedback,” Tambuli said.
At Zomba Central Hospital (ZCH), as the case was in several other public health facilities, minimal services were being provided.
Patients were seen sitting in different places, hoping the healthcare workers would come to assist them, but to no avail.
National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives (Nonm) South East Zone Chairperson Brian Muhimele accused government of paying a deaf ear to their repeated calls for the revision of their allowances.
“Government has not shown commitment to address our grievances. They need to tell us the way forward,” Muhimele said.
On his part, president of the Physician Assistants Union of Malawi (Paum) Solomon Chomba also indicated that the healthcare workers would continue with the sit-in until government addressed their concerns.
In an interview at Mzimba District Hospital, Chomba said among others, the healthcare workers also want officers who have been holding the same positions for “too long” despite having upgraded to be promoted.
He also insisted it is because authorities have been ignoring their concerns that the nurses and physicians had decided to finally leave the wards.
Meanwhile, patients who had travelled to different public hospitals in search of treatment, appealed to government to address the crisis which they said was affecting them most.
Another patient, Joseph Simbi, whom we found at Balaka District Hospital, expressed anger at the strike, saying government’s insistence that it is determined to provide universal health care to everyone was not making sense.
Simbi claimed that he had spent all the money he had on him to travel to the hospital only to meet the sit-in.
At Mzuzu Urban Health Centre, the strike coincided with the under-five clinic, resulting in the facility being crammed with women and children.
Nelis Phiri, a mother of a three-month-old baby, said she had braved the rain to get to the health centre but was disappointed to find the health workers on strike.
The health workers want top-up allowances to move from K20,000 to K70,000 for juniors and K71,400 for seniors.
On risk allowances, they are proposing to receive K150,000 from K50,000 for the seniors while the juniors want K60,000.
By press time yesterday, we had learnt that Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda had obtained an injunction at the Industrial Relations Court restraining the healthcare workers from carrying on with the strike.
The workers have since called off the strike following the injunction.—Additional reporting by Blessings Tambala, Blessings Makuwira, Imam Wali, Yohane Symon & Patience Lunda
