Member of Parliament for Salima Central Constituency Gerald Kapiseni Phiri has called on Malawi Government through the Ministry of Health to consider renovating Salima District Hospital which the legislator says is in dilapidated state.
Phiri said this in Parliament after Chairperson of Parliamentary Health Committee presented the 2021-2022 Parliamentary Health Committee financial report.
Phiri noted that the hospital is not amongst the priority hospitals to be rehabilitated under the Ministry of Health though no serious maintenance has been carried out since the facility construction years back.
“The report captured many areas that require so much attention from the Ministry of Health including issues of lack of drugs in hospitals but it was mentioned about the infrastructure status of most our health facilities of which it singled out Salima District Hospital as one of the hospitals that requires very urgent attention.
“So, I was trying to comment from the same that the observation by the committee is true and really requires attention since this has been always my outcry. When I stand in the August House, I always indicate the need to rehabilitate the hospital.
“With the coming in of the report, I was trying to put it clear to the Ministry of Health that they need to put on the priority list Salima District Hospital in terms of maintenance and other necessities that we lack,” explained Phiri.
According to Phiri, people from his Constituency and other constituencies within Salima really need this hospital to be maintained as soon as possible because people are missing out on some of the services that are required to be delivered by the hospital.
Phiri also alluded that at Salima District Hospital some of the rooms are not habitable to the extent that if the hospital is not rehabilitated, the rooms will never been used again.
He further said that part of the wood and the ceiling boards in wards are all broken.
“The walls of the hospital have lost shape and color and some beds are in bad shape. There is more that can be done to make the hospital look so attractive so that it gives hope to the patients or those who go to the hospital to seek medical help,” said Phiri.
On his part, Parliamentary Health Committee Chairperson Dr. Mathews Ngwale agreed with Phiri that their visit to Salima District Hospital established that it is indeed in bad shape demanding urgent consideration.
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