Top flight league teams have been left with no option but to spend millions of Kwacha to pay hospital bills to foreign facilities to treat injured local players, Malawi News Sport can reveal.
The development comes after one of the country’s orthopaedic facilities Beit Cure International Hospital introduced a no-adults policy in March last year.
Since then, teams have been sending players with serious injuries to Zimbabwe, South Africa or Kenya for treatment.
This week, reports emerged of Malawi Women’s National Football Team player Patricia Nyirenda, whose career hangs in balance as she is yet to undergo surgery outside the country.
Currently, Football Association of Malawi and Malawi Defence Force are pushing the responsibility on each other, yet the player sustained an injury during international duty.
Last year, local giants FCB Nyasa Big Bullets spent about K55 million to get their players treated in foreign hospitals.
Currently Bullets top the list after sending goalkeeper Clever Nkungula, midfielder Frank Willard and left-back Alick Lungu to Zimbabwe for surgery.
Most recently, Bullets sent playmaker Peter Banda to Kenya for shoulder surgery while striker Anthony Mfune was sent to Zimbabwe.
Bullets acting Chief Executive Officer Albert Chigoga bemoaned lack of proper hospitals to deal with orthopaedic cases.
“Financially, organisations have to spend huge sums of money to seek treatment outside the country. As a football club, we have spent over K55 million as a result of lack of domestic hospitals that deal with orthopaedic cases.
“We have spent millions for treatment, hotel accommodation and air tickets for only six players. Chigoga said.
The Bullets interim boss said there is a need for a local solution as athletes sustain injuries that require orthopaedic treatment from time to time.
Bullets rivals Mighty Wanderers have not been spared either as they seek medical attention elsewhere.
On Thursday, Wanderers announced attacking midfielder Mphatso Kamanga had travelled to South Africa to seek medical attention at Matseke Hospital in Johannesburg.
Ironically, Kamanga was flown to Zimbabwe in November last year to undergo arthroscopy and meniscectomy knee surgery at West-end Clinic but Wanderers stated that it was discovered that the injury was serious and it needed repair and reconstruction.
“This is the reason we have decided to send Mphatso [Kamanga] to South Africa as Zimbabwe also doesn’t have orthopedic knee specialists,” Wanderers Chief Executive Officer Panganeni Ndovi told the media on Thursday.
Ndovi, in an interview, said they were struggling with the logistics of ensuring that players travel to access these essential services. “This process is both time-consuming and costly, ultimately increasing our operational expenses and creating unnecessary delays.
“As a club, we are greatly inconvenienced by this situation. The availability of such services locally was a critical component of our operations, and we hope that steps will be taken to restore or provide similar facilities within Malawi to ease this burden on clubs and other stakeholders,” he said.
Ndovi said tentatively the club spends over K10 million to ensure that one player gets a single operation.
“It is too costly for a club but eventually we have to provide care to our players,” he said.
Beit-Cure Malawi Director of Programmmes and Development for the Hospital Davie Simengwa confirmed the facility had reverted to its original mandate of exclusively treating patients under the age of 18.
“This decision was made after the hospital recognised that extending services to adults was diverting resources from its primary focus on paediatric care. This change allows the institution to better treat children orthopaedic needs,” he said.
However, Simengwa admitted the hospital was being overwhelmed with adult cases inquiries.
“The institution receives a lot of calls from the public including footballers, athletics players, golf players with injuries but with the new strategy unfortunately focuses on treating children less than 18 years for free.
“This means any patient aged 18 years and above is ineligible. We understand the challenges that have come with these strategic changes, but we cannot do anything apart from referring the patients to Mwaiwathu Private Hospital in Blantyre,” he said.
Simengwa said the changes have made the hospital to refocus and enable the institution to perform more surgeries for children in plastic/reconstructive, orthopaedic and cleft and lip palate services.
“So, this change also aligns with Beit-Cure International Hospital and other seven hospitals across the network which focuses on treatable disabilities of children. All children that visit Beit-Cure Children’s Hospital of Malawi are treated for free, no any cost is charged to the patients,” he said.
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