MINISTRY of Health permanent secretary in charge of administration Dr George Magwende has acknowledged that other services tend to suffer when the country is faced with a public health threat, as attention mostly shifts towards what is eminent.

In an interview, Dr Magwende expressed confidence that the recruitment of more health workers would help create proper systems for managing all perennial diseases.

“It’s not relaxing per se, it’s basically shifting. Look at the way we were devastated by Covid and remember you are dealing with the same health workers. It’s like you there at Diggers, if there is a war [which] erupts, God forbid war erupts somewhere, you will probably be asked by management [to] say ‘no stop reporting on Ministry of Health, go and report on the Congo, Malawi war’,” said Dr Magwende.

“So because you are dealing with the same health workers, whose number does not change regardless of whatever, so it’s shifting. It was Covid, it was I mean Cholera and all that stuff. So you will find that for us to balance up, you skew your staff towards what is eminent. And yes, I agree with you, other services tend to suffer in the process and not that completely we forget, deliberately forget about certain services, it’s not like that. But with this recruitment we will enhance all these perennial fights against malaria, we have, I know you are aware of the malnutrition situation, you know the vaccination drive, so once you have a good staff complement, you are able to create systems.”