ZMH introduces paying service
Zomba Mental Hospital (ZMH) has introduced an optional paying service at the facility effective January 1 2015 as one way of advancing its services.
ZMH is the country’s main psychiatric referral hospital.
It accommodates 400 male and female patients.
In an interview, ZMH spokesperson, Owen Mwale, said the new service can accommodate 16 patients in single and double rooms at the moment.
“We are currently renovating the hospital. We need people to understand that this is a hospital not a prison because others utter words like surrendering the patient here instead of saying they want their relative to get treatment,” he said.
He said towards the end of 2014 people in Zomba had been living in fear with the high presence of the mentally challenged people.
“These people used to forcibly beg for money despite the city being a host to the country’s main psychiatric hospital,” he said.
It was revealed from the 2014 Mental Conference that ZMH also planned to conduct a cleaning exercise in the city’s streets.
Meanwhile, plans for renovating the hospital are underway as the facility has old structures that were constructed in 1952.
