These have significantly consumed available resources due to patients prolonged stay in hospitals and the complexity of medical care requirements. All these factors have greatly limited the range and quality of services provided. More than one mission people in Malawi are HIV-positive. There is extreme overcrowding in all public hospitals in Malawi. Patients not only fill every bed, they sleep on the floor.
Nurses are scarce.
Only the most basic drugs are in stock. And sometimes, there is no doctor at night. For instance, at Lilongwe Central Hospital in Central Malawi, the situation in the children s ward is pathetic. Patients having to sleep close together with more patients on the floor. The mattresses are bare, there are no sheets, no blankets, no pillows.