Walk-in interviews start on low note

Walk-in interviews for healthcare workers started on a low note on Thursday, with some stakeholders partly attributing it to an injunction some serving health workers obtained on Wednesday.

But the court order was later withdrawn.

With support from Global Fund Grant, the Ministry of Health seeks to recruit at least 5 800 healthcare workers in various cadres that include senior medical officers, surgeons, nurse/midwife technicians and laboratory technologists.

In Mzuzu, the exercise started late due to confusion over the venue as the exercise was first supposed to take place at St John of God hall, but the invigilators found themselves at St John’s Institute of Health Sciences, where the exercise eventually took place.

One of the interviewees, Ishmael Banda, who came from Nkhata Bay, said he graduated from Malamulo College of Health Sciences in 2021, but was yet to find a job.

He said: “This is the first time that we have had a vacancy for our cadre since I graduated. My plea is that government has to consider our cadre as well during recruitment like all others.”

Physicians Assistants Union of Malawi (Paum) president Solomon Chomba, who is part of the monitoring team for the exercise, said the exercise started on a low note.

He said: “We touched base with our membership across the country, the start was good, but the only challenge was turn-up. Some centres had few people and we may not know the reason because each cadre was being interviewed separately. No hiccups and everything went on smoothly.

“The injunction may have affected the turn-up because some people were calling us after 8am yet the interviews started at 8am exactly. People were confused. However, those that we contacted, have done the interviews because there was that consideration on delays due to the court issues.”

Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Dr Samson Mndolo said they decided to create additional centres to avoid stampedes, as was the case previously, but indicated that they had not received any challenges since the start of the exercise.

“We can only conclude better when the exercise completes on Saturday, but so far, no glitches,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Industrial Relations Court in Mzuzu retrained the ministry from conducting the walk-in interviews after an application by 122 serving health workers who felt government was being discriminatory by not allowing them to take part in the interviews, yet they had upgraded.

The impasse was resolved later following a meeting with lawyers from Jivason and Company representing the 122, and government officials, through Attorney General Thabo Chakaka-Nyirenda.

Consent was later entered to withdraw the matter.

Later, Mndolo issued a statement, assuring that serving healthcare workers would be allowed to compete for promotion during promotional interviews to be conducted in due course.

Apart from Mzuzu, other interviews also took place at Karonga Teachers Training College, Kasungu, Dedza, Blantyre and Zomba.

The vacancy rate of healthcare workers within the Ministry of Health is currently hovering around 48 percent and government hopes that the recruitment of healthcare workers would significantly help to reduce the shortage of healthcare workers in public health facilities.

A consent was later entered to withdraw the matter, with lawyer for the 122, George Kadzipatike, indicating that his clients’ concerns had been addressed.

“The parties have agreed to resolve the issues out of court and the court has endorsed that arrangement. My clients’ interests have been taken care of in the consent order,” he said.