Fuel shortage hits Nsanje Hospital hard
Nsanje District Hospital is struggling to deliver quality health services due to the exhaustion of its 2017-18 fuel budget last December.
This was revealed during a full council meeting at the boma.
Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development Francis Kasaila, who is also legislator for Nsanje Central, attended the meeting.
District Hospital due to lack of fuel
He said he was aware that an ambulance travels to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blanyre weekly to collect blood and that patients referred there are failing to return home after being discharged.
“This situation is worrisome,” said Kasaila.
He said the situation is even worse when a patient dies at QECH and relatives have to wait up to Friday when transport is available.
Last month, officials at Nsanje District Health Office (DHO) told Malawi News Agency that the hospital exhausted its fuel budget, barely six months after the passing of the 2017/18 budget.
Available information shows that Treasury approved K27 million for fuel in the 2017/18 National Budget for Nsanje DHO, an allocation which its spokesperson Felix Simbi said was not enough.
“We need about K6 million per month for the smooth running of the health facility. We ran out of the allocated fuel for this year because we had more referral cases to QECH as well as incessant power blackouts,” he said.
Simbi said they are now using resources from other district counci’s departments to ensure that ambulances and diesel-powered generators are running. n
