By Isaac Salima:
The Ministry of Health has suspended the proposed bypass fee hike for walk-in patients at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH).
Last week, the facility announced that, effective August 1 2023, it would increase the fee from the current K1,500 to K10,000.
The adjustment attracted mixed reactions from the general public, with others saying that it is exorbitant and violates people’s right to health care.
Speaking in Kulinji programme on Times Radio, Director of Quality Assurance in the Ministry of Health Martias Joshua said that they have suspended the new fee pending approval.
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“We, as a ministry, gave liberty to central hospitals to come up with the fees.
“However, the facilities only propose and we are supposed to approve. This did not happen, hence the suspension,” Joshua said.
The country has four referral hospitals, namely Zomba General, Kamuzu Central, Mzuzu and Queen Elizabeth Central where a patient needs to have a referral letter from a nearest hospital if they are to be assisted, failing which people are supposed to pay the fee.
Meanwhile, health rights advocate Maziko Matemba has asked the ministry to find a lasting solution to the problem of patients presenting themselves to central hospitals of their own accord.
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“Most health centres lack capacity and adequate drugs to ably meet the needs of their clients, hence most people prefer central hospitals to health centres. We should try to make the facilities conducive for the people,” Matemba.
