Security concerns affect Mangochi Health Centre

Pregnant mothers around Mkumba Health Centre in Mangochi have since early this year been failing to access maternal services at the  facility because nurses are refusing to be deployed  there due to a deadlock on insecurity concerns, the Weekend Nation has learnt.

Weekend Nation has learnt that the health centre which falls under Traditional Authority (T/A) Mkumba in the district no longer provides maternal services including antenatal, labour and neonatal since January this year when a doctor and a nurse left the hospital after they clashed with the community.

The centre has only been providing general clinical services thereby leaving pregnant mothers with no choice but to deliver with the help of unskilled traditional birth attendants or travel longer distances to other hospitals.

Mkumba Health Centre advisory committee chairperson Chikata Dinesi said in an interview that the deadlock started with a confrontation between People’s Party (PP) officials and the facility’s medical assistant.

“Around November last year, some PP officials came here late in the afternoon to get treatment, but the medical assistant told them to come the following day after noting that their condition was not serious as he [the doctor] had overworked that day.

“The PP members started insulting the medical assistant and phoned a senior PP official to command the doctor to assist them but the doctor refused. Another team of PP officials came to confront the doctor and after some days, the medical assistant complained that some people were stoning his house at night,” said Dinesi.

Group Village Headman (GVH) Mkumba said the situation forced the doctor and one nurse to leave the hospital.

“Since then, the facility has remained with only one nurse who was instructed not to handle maternal cases until additional nurses are deployed to the facility.

“It’s very sickening to see pregnant women delivering on the roads in the sight of children. In the past all women were delivering safely at this health centre,” says GVH Mkumba.

Malawi Health Equity Network (Mhen) programme manager Lloyd Mtalimanja whose institution helped to organise the centre’s advisory committee and empowered them to demand deployment of more health workers at the facility, said while shortage of health workers is a national problem, the situation at Mkumba is pathetic.

Ministry of Health spokesperson Henry Chimbali said: “As Ministry of Health, we are ready to send health workers to the facility once the community has assured us of their safety in all aspects.”

PP publicity secretary Hophmally Makande said it is not true that PP members confronted the doctor who left the facility, saying ordinary members of the community are the ones who complained about the conduct of the doctor.

“I have talked to the Member of Parliament for the area Hon. Yusuf Matumula. He says there was an issue between the doctor concerned and some individuals in the community. PP members are not involved in the problems at this health centre. It’s unfortunate that people are linking this issue to PP,” said Makande.