Government progresses on Phalombe Hospital
People of Phalombe can now afford a smile as government, through the Ministry of Health (MoH), has finally invited bids for the construction of Phalombe District Hospital.
According to an advert in the press, government has received a credit from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea) and Saudi Fund for Development towards the improvement of healthcare delivery.
The advert indicates that government intends to apply part of the funds to cover eligible payments under the construction of Phalombe District Hospital at Migowi.
MoH spokesperson Henry Chimbali, in an e-mailed response to a questionnaire on Thursday, said once the bids have been received, there will be technical and financial evaluation of the bids which will lead to selection and award of contracts to the contractor.
“We expect this exercise to be concluded by June 2015 and the contractor should be able to mobilise around that same time,” he said.
Chimbali said there have been delays for the project to start despite government putting aside resources for its complementing because all along the plan had been that it would find partners who would provide the bulk of resources for the construction of the hospital.
He said: “While Government had been putting in the budget around K100 million to K150 million resources for implementing this project, the project cost for constructing the hospital were in the region of around $22 million [or approximately K11 billion at the current exchange rate]. All along, therefore, government did not find a partner to finance the construction of the project.”
He said the project became feasible in 2012 and 2014 when government found the two partners, Badea in 2012 and Saudi Fund in 2014, who pledged to put together resources ($20 million) and the balance of around $1.6 million to be taken by government.
Commenting on the benefits of the hospital when constructed, Phalombe district health officer (DHO) TisunganeMwenyenkulu, speaking in an interview on Thursday, said the hospital will be beneficial to the people of Phalombe as well as reduce some of the cost that his office incurs because of its absence.
He said most of the cases in the district are referred to Holy Family Mission Hospital under a service level agreement of about K6 million per month and this is paid by MoH directly to the hospital.
Said Mwenyenkulu: “When there are delays by the ministry to pay that amount to Holy Family, they stop assisting patients and we are always forced to refer them to Zomba Central Hospital [ZCH].”
He said once constructed, the district hospital will give his office the capacity to manage cases it is failing to handle now and it will save a lot of money because transporting patients to ZCH is expensive in terms of fuel for the vehicles, high maintenance costs as well as wear and tear for the vehicles.
On what has been happening to the previous allocations for the project, Treasury spokesperson Nations Msowoya, in an e-mailed response to a questionnaire on Thursday, said although government has been showing these loans in its budget, it was for purposes of budgeting only, but no funds have been withdrawn from the loan account since funds were earmarked for hospital construction and partly for the consultant.
