Back-
Salima training
The Office of the Ombudsman has trained 68 Hospital Ombudsman from 34 health facilities in Salima and Rumphi districts.
The trainings, according to Deputy Director for Investigations and Research, Temwa Mughogho, and Chief Investigations and Research Officer in the Northern Region, Mrs. Elleanor Kabisala, were aimed at empowering the Hospital Ombudsman with necessary skills and knowledge on how to handle patient complaints.
Mughogho presided over the Salima training while Kabisala was the team leader for the Rumphi event.
Speaking in an interview, Mughogho said apart from serving as a liaison between patients and the institutional systems in their various duty stations, the Hospital Ombudsman have a role to create demand for the platform, whose aim is to improve health service delivery in Malawi.
“Hospital Ombudsman exists to provide a civic awareness platform for hospital users and other relevant stakeholders on their health-related rights, this can only be achieved if the officers acquire relevant knowledge in that area,” Mughogho said.
He added that the trainings were conducted to fill the knowledge gap that existed among some Hospital Ombudsman on realizing that they had not undergone any formal training on the work that they had been assigned.
“It is our hope that after the training the Hospital Ombudsman will effectively and efficiently carry out their work, and that they will go beyond to explain to people about the office of the Ombudsman and its functions, since we also trained them on the general mandate of the office,” Mughogho explained.
The participants in Salima were drawn from Chinguluwe, Chipoka, Chitala, Khombedza and Lifuwu Health Centers among others, while Jalawe, Tchalo, Mzokoto, Chisimuko and Mlowewere were some of the beneficiary facilities in Rumphi district.
The trainings were conducted with support from the European Union under the Chilungamo Program.
A Hospital Ombudsman is a person who is empowered to investigate, mediate and provide remedies to complaints lodged by service users, their representatives and other stakeholders in relation to a hospital’s service.
Source: The Office of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Malawi
