Malawi hospitals start charging K25,000 per referral

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Malawi Hospitals

The free health system in Malawi has started falling apart, media reports have revealed.

According to media reports that Malawi24 has monitored, patients in the Northern region district of Mzimba are being demanded to pay K25,000 if they are to be referred to Mzuzu Central Hospital.

Malawi Hospitals
Patients to cough up K25,000

Sources have disclosed that patients that have been seeking help at Kafukule Health Centre in Mzimba have been told point blankly to cough K25,000 for them to be referred to Mzuzu Central Hospital where they have to get help.

“There is no help at Kafukule and when one is so sick that they have to get referred, they are asked to pay K25,000,” said a source.

The Ministry of Health has been reeling under too much pressure especially with the economic downturn. Some quarters have argued that it is high time that government introduced user fees in hospitals. A bigger section of the Malawi population have however turned down the proposal arguing Malawians cannot manage to pay.