The Balaka District Council has warned that it will close Nandumbo Health Centre if community leaders around the facility fail to identify culprits who vandalized the Cholera treatment unit at the health facility and injured a health worker on Sunday.
The council has warned that all staff will be permanently withdrawn from the facility if the culprits are not identified in five days.
This follows commotion that ensued at the health centre where irate villagers damaged the Cholera ward at the facility, demanding the facility’s staff to vacate the premises.
Malawi24 understands that the District’s Public Health Emergency Management Committee on Monday, led by Balaka District Commissioner, held a fact-finding engagement meeting with the communities in a bid to map the way forward.
According to a statement co-signed by Balaka District Commissioner Darwin Mngoli and Balaka District Council Public Relations Officer Mary Makhiringa, the meeting among other things established that the villagers
The communities said they held protests because they were not happy to bury their loved ones in body bags and without conducting traditional or religious rituals such as bathing dead bodies.
They were also not pleased with the health workers who were not allowing relatives of Cholera patients to get close to the patients.
The statement further says that the villagers were also against the idea of contributing to transportation of Intravenous-IV fluids from the District health office to their facility whenever supplies or transport was not available.
During the fracas, the angry villages ransacked the cholera treatment centre at the health centre, damaged equipment and injured a senior health surveillance assistance.
The villagers also discharged all 22 Cholera patients at the health centre.
Meanwhile, the villagers have agreed to identify the culprits.
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