Member of Parliament for Chingale constituency, Lonnie Phiri, has pleaded with Zomba District Council to open a maternity facility at Chingale Health Center where expectant women are currently denied maternal services.
The legislator observed that the maternity wing, which was built through the Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) Project, is taking longer to start operating.
She said the delay in opening the maternity ward forces expectant women to travel long distances to Zomba Central Hospital to seek maternal services which the MP described as an inconvenience and unfortunate and total disregard for women.
Phiri said Chingale Health Center is compelled to use an old maternity wing which only serves not more than three women per day due to limited space.
“l raised the issue during a full council meeting that Chingale Health Center needed a labour and maternity ward after observing that expectant women were denied essential maternal services.
” I don’t understand why it is taking long to open the labour and maternity wing yet construction of the facility finished a long time ago,” the parliamentarian worried.
District Commissioner for Zomba, Reinhard Chavula, said construction of phase one is finished, adding that phase two which is the installation of equipment in the ward will start soon.
The DC also said he was discussing with the Director of Health Services to see if the Health Center can, in the meantime, start using the finished phase using old equipment as it waits for the installation of new equipment.
Chingale Health Center is at Sub Traditional Authority Nkapita in Zomba Chingale and serves a population of over 50,000 people.
