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CSOs plan demos against starving patients

 

Activists in Rumphi want President Peter Mutharika to stop doing ‘business as usual’ and lift the lid over the widespread starvation of patients in the country’s hospitals.

The President might have omitted the deepening healthcare crisis when he opened the ongoing sitting of Parliament last week, but Rumphi Civil Society Network (RCSN) says he cannot continue keeping Malawians in the dark on this “matter of life or death”.

Food is an important healing component to patients like these
Food is an important healing component to patients like these

“Enough is enough. Rumphi is just one of the affected districts, but time has come for the President to come out and tell Malawians the truth about the deteriorating state of patients’ welfare in the country’s hospital. What is happening? Is there any hope in sight?” said Eunice Banda, who heads the network.

The activists, together with faith-based actors and concerned citizens, plan to present a petition to the President during a demonstration slated for Tuesday at Rumphi District Council offices.

A wave of dissatisfaction has been rising since July when funding cuts pushed some health facilities, including Rumphi District Hospital, to start providing patients with just one meal a day—down from three.

The downturn hit a new low in September when the halving of hospitals’ financial allocation forced many facilities to scrape patients’ meals together with ambulance services.

Government’s failure to offer critically sick Malawians food has become the single most depressing sign of the ongoing collapse of the country’s healthcare system which is sagging due to poor financing, inadequate skilled workforce, high disease burden and lack of fuel for ambulances.

The worrisome austerity measure has been one of the major talking points in the National Assembly, with leader of opposition Lazarus Chakwera accusing government of only succeeding to put the sick on an “involuntary starvation programme”.

Commenting on the President’s address, which Chakwera termed “a zero-plan speech”, People’s Party vice-president Uladi Mussa said the scarcity of food rations for patients shows the country’s health system is in disarray.

However, patients at Rumphi District Hospital are precariously sitting between a rock and a hard place—doomed as they live, doomed if they die.

The worsening food situation aside, the protesters are also planning to vent their concerns over the breakdown of mortuary facilities at the district hospital.

Officials at the hospital refused to talk to Nation on Sunday because they have been gagged by the Ministry of Health ostensibly desperate to keep the health financing crisis under wraps.

When contacted, Minister of Health Dr Peter Kumpalume said he had been informed by the Rumphi district health officer that they had received funding, but were unable to access it due to computer-related problems.

“However, the major issue is with the suppliers who want the hospital to settle the arrears before they can do some more transactions,” said Kumpalume.

 

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