HEALTH SECTOR’s 60 PERCENT BUDGET EXHAUSTED

Reports indicate that the Public  health sector has used 60 percent of its funding allocated in the 2013/14 financial year causing panic as donors have not been forthcoming to provide more light of the looting of government resources.

The approved budget for the ministry of Health for the 2013/14 financial year was K42 billion, far below the K79.5 billion the ministry had requested leading to drop in the quality of health services  evidenced by the shortage of drugs and medical supplies in public hospitals.

Minister of Health Catherine Gotani Hara confirmed this on Friday at the opening of the joint mid-year budget review of the health sector in Lilongwe that more funding is needed to the end of the financial year in June.

Hara said discussions are underway with Treasury to deal with the funding gaps.

The 2013/14 health sector mid-year review report, which came under spotlight on Friday, indicates that  by December 31 2013, district hospitals had already spent K5.9 billion of the K9.9 billion allocated to district health offices (DHOs).

“This level of absorption implies that the hospitals will have a funding  challenges  to their operations to the end of the fiscal year bearing in mind the dynamic changes of the country”, reads in part the report.

The ministry, DHOs and Central hospitals have also spent K32 billion disbursed from the Sector Wide Approach (Swap) pool of donor funding out of the K52 billion budget for the year.