Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital Faces Staff, Equipment Shortage

Medical personnel at the Ecology Department at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital have said shortage of staff and equipment continues to affect their service delivery.

Speaking in an interview with Radio Islam, Dr Chifundo Chuka said with the rising cases of new cancer patients at the facility, the shortage is greatly hampering the efforts towards the fight against the disease.

Dr Chuka made the remarks as the country winded up this year’s children and women cancers of below the belt commemoration the month.

According to Dr Chuka they are receiving about 35 new cancer patients every week against the initial projection of 25 patients where 200 are on systemic chemotherapy and 30 come for follow up.

She has also disclosed that covid19 affected some patients who abandoned chemotherapy due to misconceptions.

In her remarks, one of the parents of cancer survivor Fatima Uladi, said misconceptions people have about cancer are also contributing to the rise in cancer patients.

However, she said her son was helped at the facility and is not getting better.

Daina Kamuwaha of Cancer Association of Malawi says cancer treatment and care is expensive as such there is need to step up efforts in dealing with the disease.