Malawi: The good, the bad and the hopeful in health care · Global Voices
In this post we highlight some of what Malawian bloggers are writing about the country's health care issues. We look at bloggers describing developments in eye care, reflecting on midwifery, expressing shock over negligence in hospitals and government waste, and we end with rare good news about the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Dr. <PERSON> examines Malawian kids. Photo: Vision2020 IAPB
We start with Dr. <PERSON>, an eye care specialist, university professor and researcher. Dr. <PERSON> informs that The University of Malawi's College of Medicine has recently introduced a graduate training program in Ophthalmology. The number of ophthalmologists in the country has also increased, with three new ophthalmologists trained within the last two years. One of them is Dr. <PERSON> himself. The new Minister of Health, who is also a new member of parliament, Dr. <PERSON>, is himself an ophthalmologist, and for many years was the only one in the whole of Malawi.
The new developments in the training program and increase in specialists are a result of a program known as Vision 2020 Right to Sight, which Malawi has been pursuing for a number of years now. Dr. 830
<PERSON> writes:
Malawi has been active in VISION 2020 activities since 2000, and has successfully organised VISION2020 workshops for Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Malawi completed the VISION 2020 five year Eye care plan in 2004, and progress has been made towards achieving goals to eliminating avoidable blindness by the year 2020 in Malawi.
Based on the 3 pillars of VISION2020, in terms of disease control, Childhood blindness was set as one of the major priorities and a Paediatric Ophthalmology unit was planned to be developed in Blantyre.
Another Malawian blogger also blogging about health care issues is <PERSON>, a Malawian nurse currently studying in Norway. <PERSON>, as she addresses herself, started blogging in March this year after arriving in Norway. Her 15 years as a midwife-nurse, she writes, have taught her about the simple, free things that matter to women whether in Malawi or in Norway:
As an experienced para 3, i really missed the support of a midwife who could greet me and put herself in my shoes during antenatal, labour and postnatal periods. Having travelled miles away from my home and live in this scandinavian country, i have really appriciated that there are some things that cost nothing but are important for all midwives to do in the whole world. A smile, greetings, giving of comprehensive information, explaining procedures, respect, empathy, sympathy.With these little non costly commodities, our hospitals will be wonderful places for women.
Malawian Nurse-Midwife, <PERSON>
But health care in Malawi also presents difficult problems especially to ordinary Malawians who cannot afford expensive private doctors. <PERSON> writes about a distant relation of his who recently hanged himself to escape deep financial problems he was ensnared in. According to <PERSON>, the man was still alive when people found him. They quickly took him to the hospital, where they found nurses and other medical personnel having their dinner.
They reporterdly went on with their business of eating the evening meal as <PERSON> lay in poor condition. By the time the medical staff had finished enjoying dinner and started to check on <PERSON>, he was no more.
Sadly, <PERSON> writes, such stories of negligence are not uncommon in Malawian hospitals, as per an incident he personally witnessed.
On one occasion I personally saw a mother holding a very ill young son rush into the hall of the referall hospital in Blantyre, QECH, to alert medics about the need for a trolley or a wheel-chair. Nobody seemed to care and the woman ended up handling the trolley herself…she was later assisted by a minibus conductor whose vehicle had kindly agreed to make a diversion to the hospital!
Another blogger, <PERSON>, expresses his frustration with a Government plan to study the feasibility of turning an old ship on Lake Malawi, the MV Chancy Maples, into a mobile hospital. According to <PERSON>, the idea has been proposed by some Scottish donors, who want the Malawi government to pay for the study at a cost of MK50,000,000 (US$357,143).
As much as I have respect for the Ministry officials K50 million can do a lot. Train at least 10 doctors, 200 medical assistance and 100 Nurses. Or better still can equip Lifuwu Hospital with drugs for five months.
How we lay our priorities should reflect the poverty and needs of Malawians. 830