By Comfort Simbeye

Chitipa, January 22, mana: Deputy Minister of Health, Noah Chimpeni has urged Kameme Health Centre staff in Chitipa to do their best with the available resources, saying government is striving to have enough equipment in health facilities.

He said this on Tuesday when he inspected rehabilitated outpatient department (OPD) and newly constructed under-five clinic at the health center.

Chimpeni said that the project is aimed to ease access to some health services at Kameme, which are only available at Chitipa District Hospital.

He acknowledged the challenges faced by people in the area to access crucial health services due to the poor road network to the district hospital.

“I have noted that it is difficult for people here at Kameme to access health services because of the poor road network.

“This is why government is doing everything possible to make more health services available at Kameme Health Center so that people can be served at the health facility, which will help them to be assisted in time,” Chimpeni said.

District Medical Officer for Chitipa District Council, Dr. Victor Matumbo said that the longer distances from the health centers to the main hospital has reduced the quality of health services delivery in Chitipa District.

“During the rainy season, all our roads become impassable, whereby we sometimes use two ambulances to have a referral system that is functioning, which makes us use a lot of resources in terms of other recurrent transactions that the government allocates to us,” Dr. Matumbo said.

He asked the government and well-wishers to help with construction of staff houses which would facilitate transfer of staff from the district hospital to health centers.

Government under Renovation of Health Facilities in Malawi rehabilitated Kameme OPD and constructed under-five clinic to a tune of MK179 million and MK404 million respectively.