During a visit to Ndirande Health Centre in Blantyre, Germany Ambassador Juergen Borsch announced that Germany is aligning its priorities with Malawi Government through the Ministry of Health and Population, and Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development to improve basic healthcare across Malawi.

The above follows after the visit showed that an urgent need to provide health personnel with equipment and better facilities to deliver professional care. On the other hand, Blantyre District Council director of health and social services Gift Kawalazira outlined the need to invest in primary healthcare. “The district has 30 facilities with a catchment area of over 1.4 million people. The rapid population growth has piled pressure on the facilities and resources because they were built long time ago. We need support to improve infrastructure and capacity to match the current figures,” he said.

During the 2019/10 Budget presentation, it was revealed that the Ministry of Finance allocated K101 billion, up from K89.9 billion in last year’s budget. An amount of K25.9 billion has been allocated  for procurement of drugs, of which K10.6 billion is for central hospitals and K15.3 billion is for district hospitals.

The Government has also budgeted K1.5 billion for purchase as well as maintenance of critical medical equipment in central and district hospitals such as MRI and CT Scan. There is also an amount of K5.8 billion that has been allocated for the procurement of ambulances.

Under the sector’s development budget, money has been set aside for construction of the Military Hospital, Blantyre District Hospital, Balaka Referral Hospital and Mponela Community Hospital as well as completion of Phalombe District Hospital  and the Cancer Centre in Lilongwe.