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Chitipa hospital crowned centre for excellence

The Ministry of Health, through Support for Service Delivery Integration-Services [SSDI-Services], has recognised Chitipa District Hospital as the centre for excellence in infection prevention and control practices.

The recognition is one way of motivating health workers in areas of performance and quality improvement in infection prevention and control practices, the ministry is implementing in collaboration with SSDI-Services.

Nkhoma (L) receiving the shield from Hara
Nkhoma (L) receiving the shield from Hara

Speaking after receiving the shield of recognition on Sunday, Chitipa district health officer Dr Fiskani Nkhoma said despite the achievement the hospital is faced with various challenges such as shortage of staff, intermittent supply of water, long distances to health centres, few ambulances, inadequate hospital equipment and congestion caused by foreigners.

“Despite these challenges, we have the lowest HIV prevalence rate, we have not had a cholera outbreak for more than 10 years; we have had a decreasing trend in maternal deaths. In fact we are also among the districts with the lowest number of maternal deaths per given population apart from achieving the highest percentage of women attending antenatal care in the first trimester,” he said.

The infection prevention and control practices initiative is receiving support from USaid to improve provision of quality health services in health facilities by reducing infant mortality, mitigating effects of HIV and Aids and managing issues of population growth.

SSDI-Services chief of party, Dr Dan Wendo, said: “We want that standards of infection prevention are geared to in our hospitals.”

The project trains health workers in infection prevention and provides them with necessary equipment to achieve this. Periodically, the clinics are assessed using the developed standards of prevention and recognised with a shield if they exceed 80 percent pass mark.

Guest of honour at the recognition ceremony, Minister of Health Catherine Gotani Hara, promised that the challenges the hospital is experiencing will be addressed.

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