National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi (Nonm) has said it is saddened that people continue dying because of government’s failure to provide necessary drugs and equipment in the country’s health facilities.
Nonm President, Dorothy Ngoma, made the remarks recently during the opening of 2016 Biennial General Meeting for the organisation.
“We appeal to the government to prioritise the health sector funding because only healthy citizens contribute positively to national development. We were trained to nurse patients and not to watch them helpless when in our hearts we know we could have done something to save lives but the health system challenges are failing us,” Ngoma said.
She also expressed concern over poor motivation of nurses.
“Nurses need to be motivated amid these challenges, we are all aware of the collapse of the locum allowance system which acted like a motivation for our nurses to go an extra mile in rendering their nursing services as a cover-up to the current huge shortage of personnel,” she said.
She, therefore, asked government to consider allocating enough resources for locum and recruitment of more nurses to ease the current pressure of workload among nurses.
Acting Secretary of Health, Chimwemwe Banda, said economic challenges the country is facing have not spared the health sector. She, however, said government is doing all it can to deal with the problem.
“In this regard, the financing of the health sector is determined on the priority need basis but we are trying to work with partners in the sector to minimise the impact and ensuring that essential services are available at all times to save lives,” Banda said.
The meeting was held under the theme “Increased influence of Nonm on public health and nursing professional issues resulting in good health for the population of Malawi”.
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