Assessing the capacity of district hospitals in mobilizing and allocating resources after health care decentralization at Kasungu and Nkhotakota district hospitals
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Date
2021-01-01
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Kamuzu University of Health Sciences
Abstract
Delivery of efficient health services requires adequate and consistent availability of the right resources, be it human, financial, equipment or material resources. Decentralization has been considered a strategy to aid in resource mobilization for the health sector. The study aimed to assess the capacity of district hospitals in mobilizing and allocating resources after health care decentralization in Kasungu and Nkhotakota District. This was a cross sectional qualitative study which focused on DHMT members. A purposively selected sample of 14 participants from DHO and DC. Data was collected through in-depth interviews. Data analysis was done by on excel and Atlas Ti. All content with similarities were then grouped in different code groups that reflected the theme to which they presented and analysis was done based on the themes. A majority of participants were male at 79%, while 64% of the participants were within the young and productive age. 57%, had more than 10 years of experience working in government at senior level management while 71% of the participants had graduate level training. The results indicate that: there is lack of power and authority vested on DHMT as decision makers; inadequate and at times unclear decision-making powers (for recruitment, approvals); expectation that public institutions cannot be innovative (ability to think beyond the government funding), and lack of political will (inability of those in power to be ethical and just in making decisions affecting the health system). DHMT capacity in resource mobilization is limited. It is recommended that DHMT should receive skills and competency strengthening training particularly in regards to resources mobilization.