Erratic availability of fuel in the country is negatively affecting healthcare service delivery, especially affecting emergency referrals and hospital operations in general, it has emerged.
The Nation random checks in districts such as Chikwawa, Phalombe, Ntcheu and Nkhata Bay established that some ambulances are grounded due to lack of diesel, forcing healthcare workers to ration referrals and prioritise only the most critical cases.
In an interview yesterday, Ntcheu District director of health and sanitation services (DHSS) Innocent Mhango said the fuel crisis has a affected the hospital’s systems such as referral as ambulances are grounded.
affected by the fuel crisis. | Nation
He said that apart from ambulance mobility challenges, the backup power systems and the medical supply chain, both of which depend on diesel, are also affected. He said that in extreme cases, the facility resorts to purchase fuel on the black market to keep essential services running.
“At one point we had an incident where we had blackout when we were operating a patient. We had no diesel in our backup generator, but by the will of God that patient survived,” said Mhango.
In Phalombe, the referral bottleneck due to fuel scarcity has forced the district hospital to improvise by resorting to managing complex cases locally, even when they require specialist care mostly available at central hospitals such as Queen Elizabeth Central in Blantyre or Zomba Central.
Phalombe DHSS Sam Siwakwe said clinicians now rely on remote consultations with specialists to guide treatment decisions.
“At least we are managing the situation. We are using phone calls with specialists to give direction on how best can we handle a particular patient due to mobility challenges,” he said.
In a separate interview, Chikwawa District Hospital administrator Hope Moyo said the facility has scaled down fuel-dependent services, prioritising emergencies while asking patients who can afford it to arrange their own transport to referral hospitals.
Nkhata Bay District DHSS Topsy Mndolo said service delivery has been compromised.
He said the hospital is facing difficulties to refer patients to Mzuzu Central Hospital, located about 42 kilometres away or to transport patients from health centres within the district.
However, the severity of the fuel crisis is not uniform across the country as spot-check in districts such as Machinga, Mzimba, Mchinji and Dowa show there is relatively stable fuel supply.
Machinga District DHSS Jonnes Chise said the main challenge has been the rising cost of fuel, which is straining already limited health budgets while in Mchinji the situation was complicated by supply disruptions that have forced the district hospital to abandon bulk fuel purchases.
The fuel crisis come at a time Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority recently announced steep fuel price increases following supply disruptions linked to tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil transit route.
Malawi consumes approximately one million litres each of petrol and diesel per day, equivalent to 60 million litres per month and 720 million litres annually.
