Public healthcare workers have resolved to seek an injunction stopping implementation of President Peter Mutharika’s Executive Order banning them from owning or having interests in private clinics and pharmacies.
The Human Resource for Health Coalition (HRHC), whose membership includes Society of Medical Doctors (SMD) and National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives (Nonm), made the resolution yesterday after an “emergency meeting” convened to discuss the President’s order.
In the order announced on Tuesday, the President called for an end to soliciting of money from patients in public hospitals by some medics and barred public sector healthcare workers from owning or holding shares in a private clinic or pharmacy.
public facilities. | Nation
But in an interview yesterday, HRHC chairperson Solomon Chomba said while the coalition’s membership appreciates the President’s intention to curb malpractices in the health sector, they feel the approach in the second directive banning private practice is wrong.
“We have agreed to take legal action because it [the decision] infringes on our economic rights. We are working on it so that we obtain an injunction as soon as possible. It is an emergency,” he said last evening.
Earlier yesterday, Chomba said Malawian healthcare workers were among “the lowest paid” in the Southern African Development Community region, pushing them to venture into the private sector.
He said the private sector provides about 40 percent of the medical care services in the country, thereby reducing distances between health facilities to meet World Health Organisation recommendations.
Chomba warned that if the order is enforced, some of the medical workers would prefer to resign rather than closing their private clinics or pharmacies.
“Private facilities are also helping. What if they resign? If they leave the public sector, it will be a crisis,” he said.
Chomba said there are rules and regulations that can be used to discipline errant employees who flout their working conditions instead of implementing a one-size-fit-all ban.
In a separate interview, SMD president Dr. Victor Mithi also welcomed the President’s call to end corruption, but said barring healthcare workers from owning private health facilities has the potential to force them to abandon public service, leaving a huge human resource gap in the public health service in the process.
He said Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe may have only two neurosurgeons who operate on tumours free of charge when the same procedure costs at least K2 million at a private facility, an amount more than what some doctors earn.
“Stopping them [from having private clinics], is subjecting them to abandon public facilities for private reasons. Even if they operate two cases in a month, they will earn twice their salary,” said Mithi.
However, he acknowledged that some healthcare workers abuse their hours for public hospitals, but said it is the duty of the employer to punish them using established policies.
Similarly, Nonm president Shouts Simeza, said the President was right to fight corruption, but got it wrong to bar them from owning clinics.
“That one is unfair. Those that advised him have made him unpopular for that decision,” he said.
Human Rights Defenders Coalition also raised concern that the order appeared to single out health workers, while other public officers with private business interests are not subject to similar restrictions.
Meanwhile, the Health Rights and Education Programme has said the country’ s current health care system’s challenges stem from the 2003 Human Resources for Health Emergency.
The programme’s executive director Maziko Matemba said a temporary measure was introduced during the 2003 crisis to allow public health workers to operate private clinics and pharmacies to tackle the ‘brain drain’ affecting the country.
In the Executive Order Number One of 2026 issued on Tuesday, Mutharika advised public hospital or health facilities owning, operating or holding shares in a private clinic or pharmacy to ‘divest’ within 30 days.
The order was in direct reaction to a joint investigative journalism report by local media houses, including Nation Publications Limited that exposed malpractices including soliciting payments for non-paying services in public hospitals.
