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Dilemma over health workers’ conduct

Medical Council of Malawi (MCM) says it is registering more complaints from patients on the conduct of some health practitioners in the country’s public and Christian Health Association of Malawi (Cham) facilities.

According to MCM registrar Davie Zolowere, complaints relate to general attitude of practitioners towards patients, doing procedures which one is not competent in, offering services such as surgery without consent and charging patients for free services.

While admitting the challenges, Society of Medical Doctors president Victor Mithi and Physicians Assistants Union of Malawi president Solomon Chomba were quick to mention that it is both systemic and chronic, bordering on inadequate staff.

Zolowere: Patients need to be told the procedure, risks and benefits

Zolowere, speaking in an interview after attending a graduation for Ekwendeni College of Health Sciences in Mzimba on Saturday, said the number of patients’ complaints was rising.

He said: “We have issues to do with practitioners hurling insults at patients, being unkind to patients. So, the first most common complaint is an issue of attitude towards patients; second is attempting to do procedures where one is not competent in. The third is offering surgical services without consent.

“Patients need to be told the procedure, risks and benefits. Sometimes patients undergo surgery and don’t know what is going to happen.”

Zolowere said in 2021, the council received almost 60 complaints from patients, up from 40 the previous year.

“After scrutiny, half of the complaints in 2021, found practitioners in the wrong,” he said.

Mithi said Malawi’s healthcare system has been operating with inadequate personnel.

He said: “For example, you have a facility with no gynaecologist, you will have clinical officers operating at that level. What this means is that people are conducting procedures that they are not supposed to be doing. If things are supposed to go the way they are supposed to be, not many people will access services they need.”

Mithi further said much as they agree with the council, they realise that it will take the country many years to operate on normal standard.

“The council disciplines practitioners that might have conducted in an unethical way, it is a good thing, but we just want to urge the government to make the working environment to be favourable,” he said.

Chomba agreed with Mithi, saying with the shortage of healthcare workers in the country, task shifting was common in most public health facilities.

“Employers must motivate workers to achieve quality health service delivery through timely filling of recruitment gaps, provision of adequate healthcare resources, including medication and timely promotion of all healthcare workers,” he said.

In response, Zolowere said competence can either be obtained through learning in school as well as on job training, insisting, medical procedures must never be taken as experiments.

Ministry of Health spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe had not responded to our questionnaire by press time.

By May this year, the MCM Board had issued 44 determinations against 44 medical practitioners, including clinical officers, clinical associates, medical assistants, radiographers and medical practitioners and specialist doctors.

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