Ministry to cut distance to health centres

Minister of Health Peter Kumpalume said his ministry is actively pursuing a policy of ensuring that people, including those in remote areas, do not travel for more than eight kilometres before accessing health facilities.

He said this in the National Assembly in Lilongwe on Friday during question time.

Karonga South Member of Parliament (MP) Malani Mtonga (People’s Party-PP) asked Ministry of Health (MoH) if it could construct a maternity wing at every health centre so that Hara Health Centre in Karonga becomes a beneficiary.

Mtonga’s question was supplementary to the one made by Balaka Central East MP Aufi Mpaweni (United Democratic Front-UDF). He had asked the ministry if it could consider constructing maternity wings at Namanolo, Mwima and Chimatilo health centres as well as additional staff houses at Nandumbo, Namanolo and Kalembo health centres.

Mzuzu City MP Leonard Njikho (independent) also asked MoH for an update on the progress of a utility building at Mzuzu Central Hospital built by Republic of China but was abandoned after the government switched its bilateral relations to the People’s Republic of China in 2007.

In response, Kumpalume said MoH policy is that no person walks more than eight kilometres to access a health facility. He said most of the health centres will have maternity wings.

Kumpalume also assured Njikho that the abandoned project at Mzuzu Central Hospital would resume in the near future.