By Wilfred Golden

The government says it is delighted to see growth in the field of medicine especially in cardiology in the country.

Deputy minister of health, Halima Daud made the sentiments when she was delivering a speech where she emphasized that government is establishing centers of excellence, one central hospital has already been earmarked for paediatric cardiac surgery and one way of reducing cardiac treatment abroad, government recognizes the need to develop specialists cardiology services in the country.

She was speaking this at the 2023 Global HealthCare Conference currently underway in California, United States of America.

Said the Deputy Minister:”Globally, Cardiovascular diseases contribute to 37% of the deaths due to non-communicable diseases and accounts for 13% of all the deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. With population growth, the burden of Cardiovascular diseases is growing in the region, and Malawi is no exception.

“During the recent cardiac camp that took place at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, over 600 patients were seen. This by itself, highlights the burden of cardiac diseases in our country.”

She added:”The government has also agreed with other governments and organizations in provision of specialized services in this field. For instance the recent cardiac camp by cardiologists from Jakaya Kikwete cardiac institute in Tanzania, the recent finalized MoU between Hearts for Mission, Blantyre Adventist Hospital and Malawi government which is ready for signing. This will see cardiac patients requiring surgery benefit free of charge for the first time in the country.”

Daud also stressed on the issue of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) saying that government partnered with Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) as well as Islamic Health Association (IHAM) to support in health service delivery.

On the part of communicable, maternal and neonatal diseases, the Minister said this continues to constitute a significant proportion of burden disease and that the burden of non-communicable disease is also increasing.

“The health system is severely resource constrained, the ongoing cholera outbreak, effect of cyclone Freddy and Covid-19 continue to impinge the health system and the country at large. These stripped the ministry of its ability to respond to routine planned activities and services as it diverted major part of its budgeted resources to manage these emergencies.

“Together with donor partners, we have worked hand in hand through initiation of a cluster response mechanism. This is to minimize the morbidity and mortality resulting from the disaster and outbreak,” the Minister said.

The conference has been designed for the leaders representing Adventist Health International (AHI) Health institutions and other Seventh-Day Adventist hospitals and schools of dentistry, medicine, Nursing and pharmacy from around the world.

The three hospitals in Malawi which are part of the AHI’s network of mission hospitals: Blantyre Adventist Hospital, Lilongwe Adventist Hospital and Malamulo Adventist Hospital.