Government says it still does not have funds to recruit nursing graduates in the country.
According to Minister Health and Population Atupele Muluzi, his ministry cannot hire nursing graduates without the funds to pay the recruited nurses.
In a statement, the minister said despite vacancies for nurses in the country’s health facilities lack of funding means government has not been able to automatically recruit all graduating staff.
“We really do need more staff, however, at the moment we simply do not have the funds to pay for them. I will not commit to recruit staff I cannot pay for – not only does that endanger our health budget, it wrongly sets expectations for young people that can’t be met,” Muluzi said.
To find solutions to the challenge, Muluzi has called for a meeting with stakeholders such as Secretary of Health Dr Dan Namarika, Executive Director of NONM Benson Phiri and President of The Nurses and Midwives Council Dorothy Ngoma together with her CEO Isabel Msolomba.
Muluzi will also meet chancellors of nursing colleges in the country to ensure that the number of students studying in the colleges is balanced by the projected vacancies in the Ministry of Health.
“We must find a solution to address the problem of qualified personnel unable to find work. This is not acceptable and extremely unfair to our young people who have worked so hard to graduate – they deserve more than that,” said Muluzi.
In 2016 and 2017, a total of 2,357 nurses graduated in Malawi but the Ministry of Health and Population only managed to find roles for 691; 170 Nursing Officers, 431 Nurse Midwife Technicians and 261 Community Midwife assistants.
Currently, the Ministry of Health and Population is working to fill 334 Nursing Officer (Grade I) posts and 5,648 Nurse Midwife Technician (Grade K) posts.
Probably give the country to Chinese! You morons . Proven a black mentality can not run the country . Hungry Rats only feed themselves, thieves
Mr muluzi . Start firing on doctors and nurse because they are not working . Driving up and down in blantyre and fill those post with new graduet . Cut those salarie for them and accommodate with young fresh doctors. Cut your fuel and give chance for 4 to 5 for young generations
The Government should still think of think of this since to sustain life we need at least a better package that can assist in our every day leaving however this country needs educated people to run so if those educated are not employed definitely they can fail to support their families to prolong with Education. So I Eger non- Governmental Organization to take part in employing nurses. The Funds that they render to the government it should look for the employment task.