Hospital send patient home

...Government still looking for a specialist in SA—Ngaunje
By Rex Chikoko
Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), a referral hospital in
Blantyre Malawi, has discharged a patient, suffering from a cancer,
despite the referral committee of Ministry of Health recommended that
she should sent to South Africa for further treatment.
The patient, Mphatso Mhango, was referred to QECH from Mzuzu hospital, three months ago where doctors at QECH also referred her to outside the country for further treatment, however two months down the line the patient is still in the country.

One of Mhango's relatives,Vilunjike Manda, said it was surprising that government was failing to facilitate the transportation of the patient despite the referral committee's recommendation after assessing the gravity of the situation.

"Nobody is telling us what is happening and to make matters worse the patient has been discharged without telling us the way forward," he said.

Manda said he has been taking up the matter with the hospital authorities but they have been directing him to ministry's head quarter.

"We were told that it was a benign tumor which if operated on quickly the patient will get work, however the case has been worsening while the patient was in hospital.

"We do not know the idea behind discharging the patient when she was supposed to be going to South Africa for treatment," he said.

A Member of the Referral Committee Dr. Mathias Joshua, who was also the Acting Hospital director at the time the decision was made said government is trying to identify a doctor who would attend to the patient when she went to South Africa.

"We are currently looking for a doctor in South Africa who would to the operation, once the doctor has been identified she is going to be sent for operation," he said.

However, Dr Joshua would not tell how long it would take to identify a doctor based on the urgency of the matter saying: "The process of sending her to South Africa has started and someone is looking for a doctor."

Minister of Health Marjorie Ngaunje said much as she was not aware of that particular case she said the process of sending a person outside the country further treatment takes time.

She said there is a government agent in South Africa who search for doctor when a referral case is forwarded to him and that the patient can only leave the country when the doctor has been identified.
"It is not easy to find a specialist in South Africa, there are a lot people who are waiting to be sent for further treatment," she said.

Ngaunje said every Malawian has got a right to treatment and there was not special treatment for VIPs when it come to referring people to outside the country hospitals.

"Human dignity is supreme in sickness and there are no VIPs when it comes to sending people outside the country for treatment," she said.

Concerns have been raised that government favours government dignitaries when it comes to referring people for outside treatment despite that those people are financially capable to seek treatment else where.

Referral Committee was established to be recommending patient, mostly those who would not afford to pay for their treatment, to outside hospitals.

It has been observed that government dignitaries, when they are sick, are quickly send to outside the country's hospitals even if the ailment would be treated locally.

Rex Chikoko is a print journalist with Malawi News. You can contact him on phone 265-9-558 423 or 265-8-858 423 email:rexchikoko@yahoo.co.uk or chikokorex@gmail.com

Africa’s brain drain here to stay

Underpaid, overworked and disillusioned: doctors and nurses are leaving Africa in droves. But the G8’s response today offers nothing that will prevent further migration of Africa’s healthcare workers.

International NGOs say that despite the announcements of funds for HIV and AIDS and other diseases, the G8 has not got back on track to meet the promises they made in 2005.

Aditi Sharma, head of ActionAid’s HIV and AIDS campaign, says the G8 leaders had recognised the problems but not offered any concrete action. “The shortage of health workers was on the summit agenda, but the G8 hasn’t made any specific commitments: no specific funds, timelines or targets,” she says.

A report by the Ethiopian National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office in 2005 stated that there are just 2,115 doctors for a population of over 77 million people – and newly trained doctors all too often migrate, for better earnings to support their extended families.

And it’s not just a problem in Ethiopia. Collins Magalasi, director of Action Aid in Southern Africa, told me that “over 70 per cent of the doctors and nurses trained in Malawi have emigrated. The G8 countries are utilising them. We can’t stop doctors leaving”.

Malagasi thinks the G8 countries should fund training institutions and provide earnings for healthcare workers that will make it more attractive to stay in Africa. The solution is in the hands of the developed countries.

This isn’t a new story: despite all the talk of funding drugs and clinics for HIV, the fact is that a continued critical shortage of doctors and nurses means people are dying in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa.

The G8 has committed to spending $60 billion to fight infectious diseases over the next five years, but civil society groups are worried that not enough funds will be available to retain doctors and nurses in developing countries.

It’s depressing for me to watch what’s happening here at the G8. It looks like I’ll be going home to the same problems as before.

Technorati Tags: africa, brain drain, ethiopia, g8, healthcare

Malawi: 'Brain Drain' in Health System Continues Unabated

Most nurses who have left Malawi have immigrated to the United Kingdom (UK), offering that country their services in the past. But now the United States of America (US) is fast becoming another attractive destination after many nurses are having an extension to their working visa being rejected in the UK, even after having worked there for nearly 5 years.

The American Hospital Association has reported that the US last year needed an extra 118,000 nurses, a demand that will rise to 800,000 by 2020. In order to cater for this shortage a little un-noticed provision in the Immigration Bill is expected to be used. This could intensify the drain of nurses from the developing world.


Reaction has been swift and filled with outrage with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), a US advocacy group saying that this provision could undermine the multi-billion dollar effort by the US to combat AIDS and Malaria by potentially worsening the already existing shortage of health workers in poor countries like Malawi.

"We're pouring water in a bucket with a hole in it, and we (US) drilled the hole," declared Holly Burkhalter from PHR when the proposals were first made.

There is no doubt, the public health sector in Malawi is already badly hit by the "Brain Drain" in the large exodus of medical professional personnel leaving the country for greener pastures in the developed world.

It has been reported that over the past five years 52% of health administrators, 64% nurses and 85% physicians have left the government health system either to join private medical providers, join other NGOs or have left the country to join overseas health systems.

Freda* has just come off her night shift in one of the largest referral hospital in Lilongwe, Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH). Working on the Female General Ward 2A had been totally exhausting for her, and if it were not for the patients' guardians helping her during the night, some of the patients would have been left unattended for long periods while she paid attention to the patients that required immediate attention.

The ward has 31 beds with an overflow of patients sleeping on the floor and on the verandah with an estimate of 38 patients to care for. Freda has one auxiliary nurse to help her. Sitting on a chair and looking more like she has been running a marathon, Freda says she is fast burning out and after working at the hospital, she barely has the energy to take care of her family.

"I have been working for many years as a nurse and at one time we were many on the ward and we were all working as a team.The burden of caring for patients was shared; we were even able to take time to have a cup of tea."

She says it is difficult to take a break without feeling as though there are more important things she should be doing.

"You feel as if it is time wasted if you stop; and even if guardians are many and disturb you when you have to give special care to a patient, we can not do otherwise since they do help in caring for their relatives because the nurse patient ratio is so bad."

She says when she became a nurse it was never her intention to work in any other organization but one of the major hospitals in the country.

Asked if she would consider leaving the country to join the medical profession overseas, Freda says now she would indeed consider it: "Before, I would have problems but now, even although nursing my own people is my passion, I feel that I am not able to give my best because I have to care for so many patients at one time. How can I give my best?" she asked adding, "besides, I have heard that very good working conditions and higher salaries have benefited many of my colleagues. Maybe it is time to look somewhere else for a job that will benefit me and my family."

Is Freda about to become a "Brain Drain" statistic in Malawi?

Recent media reports on the Senate Immigration Bill with a small but significant provision that will make it possible for an unlimited number of health care workers and their immidiate family to live and work in America makes the US another possible destination for nurses from Malawi. The Senate Bill 2611 already passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee will make it possible for more foreign nurses to live and work in the US.

The provision is intended to assist the US government fill the gap of a shortage of nursing staff needed for their health system.

At present the US has 500 special visas for nurses each year that makes it possible for nurses and their immediate family members to get a green card and live in the US.

The possibility of recruiting foreign nurses to cater for the needs of the US has drawn some negative responses from experts from within the US and Africa who have been following the situation of the "Brain Drain" from the African continent