By Andrew Mkonda

Lilongwe, December 13, Mana: Government has reaffirmed its commitment to construct 900 health facilities across the country so that people are able to access health service delivery within their locality.

Deputy Minister of Health, Halima Daudi made the remarks at Chiponde health centre in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Chimutu in Lilongwe, Tuesday during the commemoration of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) day.

Daudi said in the first phase, government is intending to construct 55 health facilities, of which 20 of them have already been completed and they are ready for use.

“We will be completing all health facilities that were abandoned by the previous regime because we do not want people to be walking long distance to access health services,” she said

Daudi said it is sad that the country has been losing people to deaths especially pregnant women on their way to hospital for delivery.

She therefore, assured people of Chiponde that government will soon start completion works of Chiponde Health centre which stalled nine years ago.

World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Malawi Dr. Neema Kimambo said there is need for collaborated effort so that the country achieves universal health coverage.

Kimambo said according to WHO recommendation, people are supposed to be within a five kilometer radius to the nearest health facility, but currently 75 percent of the people in the country walk more than eight kilometers to their nearest health facility.

She added that WHO is committed to work hand in hand with government in all its initiatives to attain effective universal health coverage across the country.

Chairperson for Universal Health Coverage (UHC), George Jobe commended government for the initiatives it has started undertaking such as recruitment of additional healthcare workers, procurement of some medical equipment such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner and several other efforts.

However, Jobe called on government to deal away with some challenges being faced in the health sector such as stock outs of some essential medicines and supplies.

“It is pathetic that the country is on daily basis experiencing increase in Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) such as cancer, diabetes and hypertension. Sudden deaths are reported almost daily. There is therefore a need to educate the people on these NCDs,” he said

Universal Health Coverage event is commemorated on 12 December every year and this year, it was commemorated under the theme: ‘Health for all: Time for Action.’