Healthcare workers demand permanent jobs
Physician Assistants Union of Malawi (Paum) and the National Organisation for Nurses and Midwives (Nonm) have condemned the government for deciding to hire temporary workers instead of permanent staff to fill vacancies in the health sector.
Their reaction follows a Ministry of Health announcement that it will hire 351 temporary staff for three months from April 1 2024 to help in the country’s cholera response.
The workers, who include medical doctors, clinical technicians and nurses, will be deployed in Nsanje, Chikwawa, Blantyre, Mulanje, Mzimba North and Lilongwe district councils, according to the ministry.
A statement signed by Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Samson Mndolo notified potential unemployed individuals of the vacancies through the ministry’s website.
But in an interview yesterday, Paum president Solomon Chomba described the decision as torture, saying government should have absorbed the idle healthcare workforce to fill existing vacancies.
In a written response to the suggestions, Mndolo said the government will recruit more permanent staff in a few weeks time.
In December 2023, the ministry announced plans to recruit more than 5 800 health workers to be posted in health facilities across the country, a drive whose walk-in interviews were conducted in January this year.
