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40 people die in a week at KCH
Problems at the Central Region’s referral hospital Kamuzu Central, have reached a crisis stage, with medical staff there revealing that over 40 people die in a week due to curable ailments amid scarcity of the most basic hospital requirements, The Nation has established.
While one doctor described how pathetic the situation is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a nurse recounted about 14 deaths in a day as her worst experience ever.
The ICU, which accommodates three patients at one go, struggles with over six patients wanting to share the equipment, such that medics say “we are having to sacrifice some patients for lack of alternatives.”
In some cases people meant for ICU are being referred to Highly Dependence Unit (HDU) where their lives can hardly be sustained and end up dying, according to doctors.
Meanwhile, the hospital had to offload over 40 bodies from the mortuary on Monday this week that had overstayed because the facility could not afford to hire Lilongwe City Council (LCC) personnel to dig mass graves to bury mostly prisoners and accident victims who could not be identified since February to create space.
KCH – a referral hospital which caters for at least five million people within the Central Region and Northern Region – has been struggling to contain the number of patients being referred there due to insufficient medical and other basic supplies including detergents for laundry.
Head of Surgery Department Dr Carlos Varela said he has hopelessly witnessed emergency patients dying because the hospital cannot operate on them as “we do not even have materials to close the wound”.
In a day, KCH operates on a minimum of 20 patients and that number has had to be reduced to at least five a day with the hospital sending some critically ill back home without surgery.
“We are losing a lot of lives and we can’t help them, not that we don’t want, but we don’t have the materials. Sometimes we keep the patients in the hope that we’ll find materials, but they just get worse and they die,” said Varela.
A theatre nurse Regina Ndelemani talked of a situation where some cancer patients “visit us much as five times the theatre (for surgery) but as a result of lack of medication, we keep sending them back.”
“But at that time cancer is spreading, most of them just die like that,” she said.
There are many of these sorry stories on the faces and mouths of almost all medical personnel at KCH except that they are gagged to speak of the horror there.
But a look into record books at KCH showed that the number of deaths going to the mortuary is on the increase and this is mostly due to insufficient hospital supplies.
A closer look showed that on average, five people were dying per day, but there were two worst days in October; October 1 and 5 when 13 and 14 people died respectively.
Hospital staff who petitioned Parliament over the matter this week attributed the problems to reduced budget, saying “four years ago, we would get between K80 and K100 million per month, but now the figure has been trimmed to K26 million.”
“This basically caters for bills, food and that’s it,” said Varela.
On his part, hospital director Noor Alide was lost for words to discuss the matter only, saying “the situation is pathetic”.
On Monday this week, a truckload of bodies headed for the graveyard in Lilongwe, including Likuni and Biwi, where residents saw four bodies being dumped in one grave.
Meanwhile, some cold rooms at KCH are also faulty, making the situation even worse by congesting the remaining one with bodies lying all over the floor.
Health Minister Gotani Hara on Wednesday said government is working on ensuring the supply of basic needs for the hospital saying the problem is due to a track which is stack at Beira port.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Godfrey Kamanya has apologised to hundreds of angry KCH staff over the remarks he made in Phalombeon Wednesday.
Kamanya during the installation of Senior Chief Chiwalo on Wednesday branded the hospital staff who gave government a 48-hour deadline to sort out the problem of resources as members of the Democratic Progressive Movement (DPP).
“You see as politicians, we have to be very cautious, so when we heard that, the petition had been received by Mwanza Central Member of Parliament (MP) Nicholas Dausi, we wondered if the petition was going to be handed to the relevant authorities because naturally, the procedure is that in Parliament, it’s the Speaker. However, I am sorry, please forgive me,” he said.
Andale ntchito kukweza mafumu basi,koma kuti mutenge ndalama ndikukathandizira kuchipatalako ayi ndithu.ndakhumudwa nazo bwanji?
The Head of State has shown that She has her priorities up side down. School me here, out of the so called ‘5 priority sectors’, Are the following undertakings part of the so called ERP? “Kugawa ng’ombe zoonda zokuti even a MBC TV kuopa kuti ationetse bwino bwino, Kuyendera nyumba (kapitao wamkulu), kukweza mafumu” Why not postpone other activies and prioritize the ‘KCH CRISIS’
I agree with U Cocoa Tea, the money she (govt) spends on one trip alone is enough to buy asprin for the whole year in all Malawian hospitals not only KCH.
This is very bad, and she is busy lying to people that she got the bus from uk forum and yet there was not even a single donation from non of Malawians . Even Mahecas there failing to raise 10000pounds. Now the cash gate, now this so called kachale calling Malawian people makape on Facebook , u will pay in kind. People re tired u re busy arresting this juniors , because u re scared of the main culprits. How on earth u ve got fat accounts more than Obama ?
This is very sad indeed. If the government cannot even take care of the health of its citizenry then we could better say there is no government. looking at these figures it is mote than 80% reduction of the budget if we consider in dollar terms. by now the hospital should have been getting over K150million due to the current inflation. Now if the Central hospital is like this what more with the District hospitals. The president has put priority on safe motherhood, where will these mothers and their children get medical care after their safe delivery? Who is fooling who but seriously lets divert all our attention to the welfare and safe and healthy livelihood of the poor masses.
Look here! we Malawians and anybody else can play around with anything, and He will just be looked at. But when it comes to life of a human being please watch up, once more I say watch up!. Man is not for butchers, no. Man is respectable no matter what situation he may be, should be looked after. Because no man has a right to take away somebody’s life. Now here we are giving a bad reputation to our learned Doctors, just because some one is turning a deaf ear to the cry of the nation. Where is the charity at all if there is any under this sun. to help some one who is dying and to visit some one who is going to the garden alone. And I go to cheer that person because he needs me.
Loosing 40 lives a week is treble than to build a house for a mother who is not in labour yet. The national hospital is given mk26.million a month as said, when some one is heaping mk 107m in the house for personal use. where is the love or charity among citizens there? Now here who is to blame? People will say doctors. But don’t forget the old song: Nice people with nice manners, but have no money to spend. Yes our good Doctors have all the good will to help. But have no equipments what do they do? Please help us.
“the hospital had to offload 40 bodies” ? What does that mean ? Eeish …. koma inu!!