Abstract

While the Ministry of Health recognizes in its various documents, such as the Malawi Health Sector Strategic Plan 2011 – 2016, that there are inadequate doctors in the country, it is paradoxical to see the ministry deploying these scarce doctors in administrative positions such as District Health Officers (DHO) and Departmental Directors at the Ministry of Health headquarters. This study was carried out to investigate the motivation of deploying the doctors in administrative positions and its impact on the delivery of health care services in Malawi. A sample of 28 participants composed of 4 key informants and 24 respondents was drawn using the purposive sampling technique. Data was collected using interview schedules. The findings show that the main motivation of the ministry of health in deploying doctors in administrative positions was to attract them and retain them in the public health sector. On part of doctors, attraction to these positions is based on their feeling that their qualifications entitle them to assume these positions to endorse the interests of all health workers. The study also brought to light the major feeling widely held by clinical officers that this practice exploit them to the advantage of doctors. The study concludes that the practice ensures retention of medical doctors in the public health sector but does not improve the delivery of health care services because the retained doctors are misallocated and the clinical officers are de-motivated from performing clinical work by the misallocation of doctors. It is hoped that dissemination of the study findings will stimulate further studies in order to come up with alternative strategies that could address these issues.

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School	: School of Law, Economics and Government
Issued Date	: 2013

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