MANEPO calls for specialised medical practitioners for the elderly
The Malawi Network for Older Persons Organisation (MANEPO) has said many elderly persons in the country die because of lack of medical care from specialised medical practitioners.
Executive Director for MANEPO, Andrew Kavala, told the local media that older persons are handled by medical practitioners that lack expertise in aliments associated with the elderly as is the case in other countries. Kavala therefore asked government to scale up efforts in training medical people that can comfortably help older persons.
“As a country, we don’t have specialists that can give medical aid to the elderly. We have different medical specialists but not those that can ably assist older persons. The result is that some older persons fail to get the right medical aid because they are being assisted by people who are not really sure of what to do,” explained Kavala.
Public Relations Officer for the Ministry of Health, Adrian Chikumbe, acknowledged the problem.
“We are a developing country and it is true that we do not have specialised medical practitioners for older persons. We however have specialists in a number of areas that also do their best to assist them. Plans are there for our doctors to specialise in that area,” he said.
Malawi has 1.1 million elderly persons.
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