Health and Population

Promoting good health and well-being of all citizens is a key priority of the DPP:

1. All districts in Malawi will have adequate medical facilities including “primary health care” within a reasonable distance from their homes; Medical services in Malawi will be overhauled to the remotest areas of our country.
2. All existing health and sanitation facilities in public places such as schools, hospitals, clinics, cinemas, government buildings and offices, airports, bus stations, and market places will be rehabilitated and made operational through effective maintenance and repairs.
3. Intensifying national campaigns against sexually transmitted diseases (STD); communicable diseases and epidemics through more extensive education and information through mass media; the traditional chiefs and village headmen will be entrusted with the task of ensuring that new health rules are obeyed for the health of our people.
4. New mobile medical facilities will be introduced in the rural areas especially of hospitals and clinics; traditional markets in the rural areas should be provided with toilets and potable water through local governments or local municipalities, duly established for this and related purposes.
5. A clear and definite balance will be made from “curative” to “preventive” medical facilities. This will imply changes in perceptions and attitudes of those in charge of health as well as general public; new training programmes, especially of Nurses and Medical Assistants, will be introduced to cater for this new orientation; political interference in the medical profession will not be allowed.
6. Hospitals and clinics in all parts of the country will be better equipped and modernized. The equipment presently available in our hospitals as well as drugs and medicines will be repaired and maintained.
7. New research in medical science and technology at the University of Malawi, the Malawi University of Science and Technology and other research laboratories will be encouraged to ensure that medicine and treatment of the sick conforms to the highest international standards and that these are also suitable to our needs; harmful drugs will not be manufactured or imported into Malawi.
8. Extensive and intensive training programmes including skills upgrading will be introduced in the medical profession with appropriate rewards and incentives to all people working in the field of heath and sanitation.
9. Appropriate population policies and family planning will be adopted both as health issues as well as social issues.
10. Encourage investment by the private sector into the health, especially the curative sector; among others.