Zomba Central Hospital (ZCH) has joined three other local hospitals to be providing specialised surgeons training to healthcare professionals.

The other three health facilities are Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre, Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe and Malamulo Mission Hospital in Thyolo.

In an interview yesterday, ZCH principal administrator Fredson Kambeni said the Eastern Region referral hospital has been accredited by College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa, whose headquarters is in Tanzania, after meeting the requirements needed as a specialist training centre.

He expressed optimism that the training centre will help to improve service delivery at the facility.

“The accreditation alone means a lot because it will improve patients care because some will be trained and absorbed here. This will improve the skilled human resources because currently, we only have three surgeons,” said Kambeni.

Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Samson Mndolo said the accreditation of ZCH to offer surgeon specialised training will help to decongest trainees in the three other accredited facilities in the country.

New approved centre: Zomba Central Hospital

He said: “Zomba [ZCH] has just joined, so this will help to increase the number of specialists and it will also improve quality service.

“Queens [QECH] has done that for close to 20 years now and apart from surgeons, there are also other specialised trainings they offer because they have a bigger capacity. So, Zomba has just started with surgeons, but with time they will expand.”

On funding, Mndolo said facilities use funding they receive for provision of healthcare to train specialists, but on the other hand, the trainees provide free service.

“So the accommodation and examination fees are sponsored by students themselves or where they come from. If they are our employees, we handle them as government employees,” said the former QECH director.

He, however, could not disclose the number of specialists in the country.

But according to Medical Council of Malawi data, as of September 2021, the country had 153 Malawian medical specialists, but 38 of them had left the country for greener pastures between 2017 and 2021.

Commenting on the matter, health rights activist George Jobe described ZCH’s accreditation as “good news”.

He also noted that the training will improve the quality of healthcare system in Malawi.

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