Medical Council of Malawi has earned praise for phasing out the training of medical assistants with stakeholders suggesting that the move will improve primary healthcare as more qualified cadres will take charge.
Malawi College of Health Sciences (MCHS) executive director Alice Kadango, a public health professor at the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) and Physicians Assistants Union of Malawi president Solomon Chomba welcomed the move in separate interviews.
Their reactions followed a notice by MCM registrar Davie Zolowere through a letter dated May 11 2025 that training institutions will not be allowed to enrol new students in medical assistant programmes from 2026 onwards.
He further said the move is aimed at improving service delivery and strengthening the healthcare system to ensure equitable access to quality health services.
Reads the letter: “Evidence indicates that health centres achieve improved patient outcomes and more efficient utilisation of medical resources when led and staffed by clinical officers and medical doctors.”
In an interview yesterday, Zolowere said many of the registered medical assistants are nearing retirement while those with a long way from retirement have pathways for upgrading their qualifications.
Data from MCM indicates that out of 18 000 medical practitioners registered with the council, 4 200 are medical assistants while 3 500 are clinical officers.
Medical assistants graduate with certificates in clinical medicine after two years of study while clinical officers study for three years and graduate with diplomas.
In an interview yesterday, Kadango said the phase-out aligns with the Malawi 2063 Vision to increase access to quality healthcare.
She said MCHS enrolls 200 students annually for the certificate programme and 100 students for the diploma programme but the college is already planning to increase intake for its diploma and degree programmes.
“As colleges increase intake for diploma and degree programmes, the health sector will also benefit through provision of more skilled healthcare workers,” said Kadango.
In a separate interview, KUHeS public health professor Adamson Muula said clinical officers should ordinarily be expected to perform better than medical assistants.
He said: “The decision to discontinue the production of medical assistants should have come earlier. We now have a lot of clinical officers and medical doctors to employ.”
On his part, Chomba said the move aligns with global standards as Malawi is one of few countries still training medical workers at certificate level.
But while acknowledging that health outcomes in healthcentres are set to improve, Christian Health Association of Malawi executive director Happy Makala warned that living conditions for health workers need to improve for the reform to be successful.
Re-evaluation of health worker cadres is one of the reform areas in the Health Sector Strategic Plan III which the government developed in 2023 to move the country towards Universal Health Coverage by 2030.
In February this year, the Nurses and Midwives Council of Malawi also announced the phasing out of three-year registered nurse and two-year upgrading registered nurse-midwife diploma programmes.
