Malawi Ministry of Health

Health Technical Services

The Physical Assets Management (PAM) is a division under the Health Technical Support Services (HTSS) department in the Ministry of Health. The PAM Division continues to contribute significantly to the improvement of the health of Malawians through provision of access by all to quality health care delivery through good quality, safe, efficient health care technology which is affordable to vulnerable sections of the population.

It has four (4) regional offices across the country known as Referral Maintenance Units (RMU) headed by Chief Medical Engineers. The RMUs are situated within the Central hospital premises. It also has maintenance units responsible for the management of infrastructure and utilities in all the central hospitals known as Central Hospital maintenance Units (CHMU) and district health offices known as District Maintenance Units (DMU). The referral maintenance units are attached to the Zonal offices administratively but report to PAM headquarters on technical issues. 

Its major mandate is to ensure that all physical assets i.e. infrastructure and equipment are both available and functional in all the government health institutions.

 

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Read more on Preventive and Corrective Maintenance.

 

CHALLENGES:

  1. Human resource; Presently there are very few biomedical engineers and technicians in the health sector. There is only one biomedical engineer at district maintenance unit and a maximum of two at central hospital maintenance units. With a maximum of three at referral maintenance units. There are thousands of equipment that require services of these very few engineers
  2. Training; Most of the engineers and technicians have general skills of various medical devices acquired from training institutions. There is need for specialization training for the to be experts in a specific field of biomedical engineering. A very good example could be radiology equipment specialization
  3. Financial resources to support procurement of spare parts for effective maintenance of faulty devices and consumable parts for preventive maintenance to minimize frequent break down and down time of equipment
  4. Utility vehicles for headquarters to do supervision and for regional units to travel to health facilities to do preventive and corrective maintenance. Some of these offices do not have even a single utility vehicle.

 

The Unit is a sub-division of Health Technical Services which encompasses Medical Laboratory and Medical Imaging also known as Radiology. This division forms part of the three divisions including Diagnostics, Physical Assets Management (PAM), and Pharmaceuticals which together constitute the Health Technical Services (HTS). Diagnostic Services Unit is responsible for ensuring provision of quality diagnostic, monitoring drug efficacy, and patient management services. This unit is also responsible for formulation of policies, guidelines, protocols and standards for the services in the country.

The Diagnostics division executes its responsibilities through the two units of Laboratory and Radiology.

Laboratory Services

Current services offered include:

  1. Blood banking
  2. Biochemistry  
  3. Haematology
  4. Parasitology
  5. Microbiology
  6. Molecular Biology
  7. Serology
  8. Cytology
  9. Mycology
  10. Urinalysis
  11. Immunology
  12. Histology
  13. Laboratory Based Research

Radiology  Services  

Current services offered  include:

  1. Conventional radiography
  2. Computerized tomography
  3. Ultrasonography
  4. Mammography
  5. Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  6. Research

Principles and Values

The diagnostic service provision is governed by the following principles and values:

Principles

  1. a)  Integrity
  2. b)  Partnership
  3. c)  Needs-based care
  4. d)  Equitable care
  5. e)  Respect for human rights
  6. f)    Community participation

Values

  1. a)  Compassion
  2. b)  Transparency and accountability
  3. c)  Confidentiality
  4. d)  Efficiency

GOAL

To standardize and coordinate diagnostic services to allow for best practices to be achieved in all health institutions in Malawi.

Vision

A health care system with efficient, comprehensive, affordable,quality diagnostic and interventional services which are available and accessible to all people living in Malawi.

Mission

Strive to provide efficient, effective, accessible, equitable, and affordable diagnostic services to all and contribute to the prevention  and management of the country’s health problems through the provision of quality assured diagnostic and interventional services at all levels of health care delivery.

Vision

The Pharmaceutical Department of the Ministry of Health is mandated to ensure the provision of high quality Pharmaceutical care and services to the people of Malawi.

Mission

To ensure constant availability of medicines; equitable access and rational use of Medicines of good quality, safe and efficacious medicines and medical supplies at an affordable cost to the people of Malawi at all times through well trained, motivated and dedicated personnel.

Overall Goal

Overall, the Pharmaceutical section is mandated to ensuring improved and sustained health of the population of Malawi by ensuring constant availability of medicines, rational use and access to safe efficacious, good quality and affordable medicines and medical supplies.

Objectives

  • Promote rational use of medicines by prescribers, dispensers and consumers.
  • Strengthen quality assurance of medicines and medical supplies which are sold or supplied to consumers by private and public sectors.
  • Establish financing mechanisms which ensures access to essential medicines
  • Improve the system of supply  and management of medicines and medical supplies through rational procurement systems; improved medicines distribution and management systems at all levels of health care delivery
  • Increase quantity and quality of human resources for the Pharmaceutical sector involved in in the provision pharmaceutical services at all levels of care.   
  • Promulgate the necessary legislation to support the provision of pharmaceutical services in the country.
  • Promote good governance of medicines.