On January 16th, our friend Paul Msoma raised an SOS asking well-wishers for desperately-needed flowmeters for patients admitted at Kamuzu Central Hospital.
A flowmeter costs K227,000 but COVID-19 patients were dying because there simply weren’t any available at the hospital to assist them. By the time Malawians rallied around and bought about 10 flowmeters, several people in Paul’s ward had died.
Paul also pleaded for Non-Invasive Positive Pressure Ventilation. Without it, Paul said, “it is as good as a death sentence”.
Paul’s speaking out, and his death, left me angry.
How can our people die like this, without critical medication support, yet billions were allocated to the COVID-19 Taskforce to procure essential drugs and equipment. Where did the money go?
How can we, in good conscience, spend K60 million on planning meetings or K50 million on finding out where to put isolation centres…Just how?
We even had a plan to spend K46 million on a “public awareness” theme song. A song, when people were dying because a gadget that costs K227,000 was not available. Just how?
