Zomba health centre operating without clinician
Communities in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kuntumanje in Zomba and surrounding areas have requested government to deploy a medical officer at Namasalima Health Centre.
The request was made on Tuesday at Namwera Community Based Organisation (CBO) Hall during an interface meeting organised by the Women’s Legal Resource Center (Wolrec) with support from the Swedish ‘We Effect’ project.
One community member, Cornex Kumukumu, revealed the health facility has been sending patients back without being attended to for three weeks, on grounds that the clinician responsible for diagnosis and prescription of drugs is away on other duties.
Nursing and midwife technician at the health centre, Fatsireni Mahenge, confessed that the health facility is indeed sending patients back since its clinician left to attend to his ill father.
Mahenge said the development has forced nurses to close some sections of the facility and only operate the labour ward.
She said: “In reality, we have temporarily closed the health centre until the clinician resumes work as it is not normal for us [nurses] to diagnose and prescribe drugs to patients, for such tasks are outside our job description.”
Speaking on behalf of the district health officer (DHO), senior clinical officer William Mlotha acknowledged the situation and attributed it to shortage of clinicians nationwide.
He said: “We intend to shift one of the nurses at the health centre from midwifery to diagnosis and prescription to ease the problem. However, we are not certain when this will take place.”
