By Isaac Salima:
Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (Qech) has announced a raft of measures aimed at improving service delivery at the facility amid rising public concerns with performance of public hospitals in Malawi.
Qech Director Patrick Kamalo has since warned staff members at the hospital against bad practices including demanding money from patients for them to be able access services that are supposed to be free.
Kamalo, who has just been appointed to the position, said this Friday at the first-of-its-kind general assembly the hospital had with all staff members.
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At the meeting, Kamalo also outlined reform measures in the hospital’s pursuit for quality delivery of health services.
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The meeting came in the aftermath of a groundbreaking collaborative investigation by media houses in Malawi that exposed rampant fraud in public hospitals in Malawi.
In the joint investigation, journalists from the Times Group, Capital FM, Nation Publications Limited, Platform for Investigative Journalism, Malawi Institute of Journalism, Africa Brief and Zodiak Broadcasting Station exposed how syndicates of healthcare workers – from security guards to doctors – in public hospitals in Malawi are extorting money from patients for them to access medical care in those hospitals.
The investigation further found that those that are not able to pay are left on the waiting list forever or told services are not available.
In his address to staff, Kamalo said that the hospital would no longer tolerate such practices.
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“It was noted that our staff have been engaged in such malpractices. That’s why we thought of addressing them so that they know that we are aware of what is happening and we discussed steps that should be taken to address it.
“The aim is that we must work together so that we end these malpractices,” he said.
Kamalo also said that the facility would introduce identity cards for staff members to put on every time they are at work.
“We know that some of the people who are doing these bad practices are not our staff. People can just come from outside and cheat the patients.
“For some time, our staff members have not been putting on identity cards. We have to have a way of tracing anybody masquerading as a medical official,” he said.
The hospital, according to Kamalo, will also come up with system for employees to swipe cards every time they are reporting for duties. This, he said, would also help in enforcing punctuality.
A senior nurse in the Emergency and Critical Care unit at the hospital, Feggie Bodole, commended the authorities for the engagement.
“This is the first of its kind and we urge authorities to continue holding such meetings so that all of us should have an opportunity of sharing our concerns for the betterment of our clients,” she said.
In response to the story which media houses published on Sunday, Minister of Health Madalitso Baloyi, stormed Kamuzu Central Hospital, one of the sites of the investigation, where she blasted authorities for the fraud and presented her own evidence of a patient who had allegedly paid money to hospital staff for a service.
The most prominent response came from President Peter Mutharika who issued an executive order for hospital staff to stop such malpractices or be dismissed summarily.
In a further response, on Thursday, government introduced a toll-free number for members of the public to report corruption and poor service delivery in government hospitals, among other areas of concern.
