According to the World Health Organisation, the healthcare situation is dire in Malawi at the moment. It is estimated that there are just two doctors and 59 nurses per 100,000 Malawians, and that 65 per cent of nurse vacancies remain unfilled.
There is obviously a serious shortfall in medical skills in the country, with around 59 per cent of Malawian physicians currently practising outside of the country.
In response to these shocking figures, a number of new health surveillance assistants (HSAs) are now being trained and posted throughout the country. The non-government organisation, Management Sciences for Health, reported at the recent Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa meeting that 1,000 new HSAs had been successfully trained up since 2008.
The HSAs – initially introduced back in the 1960s to curb the effects of smallpox – undergo a training course lasting several weeks. After this basic module and six additional days of training, the HSAs are then able to run ‘village clinics’, where they work to increase access to medical treatment for diseases like malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia. This is especially beneficial for rural areas of Malawi, where the nearest medical facility may be several miles away.
