Despite missing the 2022 completion deadline, President Lazarus Chakwera is still counting on the 900 health posts project to ease access to healthcare in the country and has promised people in Dowa a facility under the initiative.
Speaking on Saturday when the President conducted a whistle-stop tour in Dowa District to mobilise people to register to vote, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mponela asked Chakwera to consider constructing a health post at Chimwaza in the district.
In his response, the President said his government is constructing 900 health posts nationwide to ensure that people access health services within a five-kilometre radius.
He said Chimwaza will be considered as a beneficiary of that project.
“The construction of 900 health posts has already started across the country,” said Chakwera.
In his State of the Nation Address in 2021, the President said government was committed to ensuring that communities have access to health facilities within five- kilometre radius by constructing 900 health posts and staff houses in hard-to-reach areas by 2022.
But by the end of 2022, there was not much to show and government pushed the deadline to 2025. However, as of August 2024, only 75 health posts out of the 900 had been constructed and most of them funded by development partners.
In an interview yesterday, Parliamentary Committee on Health chairperson Matthews Ngwale bemoaned the project’s delays, saying by now the country should have completed the 900 health posts.
But he said there is an indication that government has identified funding to roll out the project fully, but said it will be too early to celebrate.
On his part, Health Rights Education Programme executive director Maziko Matemba said government needs to come out clear on when the 900 health posts will be constructed and where the funding will come from.
He, however, said it is good that the President is still talking about the 900 health posts, arguing it shows that government has not abandoned it.
In 2022, government planned to start with 55 health posts and the phase was to cost K13 billion, of which the Global Fund pumped in K4 billion while government was to inject K9 billion. However, government provided only K1 billion for the project in the 2023/2024 National Budget, leading to only 20 of the targeted 55 health posts being constructed by March 2024 .
