A Safe Place for Medical People to Work
Lilongwe, Malawi … It is a nationwide problem that continues to grow more serious as each day passes. In a first world nation one has to ask why they do not even have exam gloves much of the time in their hospitals. There are a number of reasons:
- Shrinking revenue from government taxation,
- Lack of government workers to process and collect taxes,
- A higher demand for more and more goods and services,
- The high cost of maintaining healthcare for a population that has nearly doubled since 1993 (The United Nations puts the population of Malawi at 18,297,792 as of 6 July 2017. The median age is an astonishingly low 17.3 years. In 1993 the population was 9,600,000, or nearly ½ what it is today).
- A downturn in the export market for Malawi goods, (In 2015, Malawi exported $1.27B and imported $2.29B, resulting in a negative trade balance of $1.02B. During the last five years the exports of Malawi have decreased at an annualized rate of 1.8%, from 1.39B in 2010 to 1.27B in 2015 – Observatory of Economic Complexity).
- A lack of foreign investment in infrastructure and manufacturing,
- And a major increase in malaria, HIV, Tuberculosis, and other diseases has overwhelmed the government, and in turn the government run and medical infrastructure.
Result Reaches the Hospital
The result of these economic problems converts to every facet of Malawi life. Road repairs, government services, agriculture subsides, medical care, and on and on.
In the healthcare area the problem reaches all the way down to the patient in the bed and the staff doctor or nurse caring for them. It can be the patient who can receive no burn ointment or gauge to be placed in crucially serious burns, or it can be the doctor or nurse preparing to do surgery on an AIDS patient with no protective gloves for their hands.
Hearing the need and having sympathy is one thing, but what is needed most is for everyone who reads this story to go on line, or to your nearest store, and purchasing a box or more of exam gloves for doctors and nurses in Malawi. Their life could depend on your decision.
The campaign to put gloves in Malawi’s over 600 hospital and healthcare facilities has now reached 60,000 pair.