Mwaiwathu Private Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi

This spotlight was hosted by Froid Chipetah, Laboratory Manager.

The Mwaiwathu Private Hospital Laboratory is a hospital affiliated laboratory in Blantyre, Malawi. Mwaiwathu is a 70-bed hospital with an average of 2,5000 monthly patient visits. The lab has 20 employees and is accredited by the Southern African Development Community Accreditation Services (SADCAS). They do an average of 6,000 tests a month.

Q: Tell us about one or two accomplishments that you are proud of as a lab. 

A: Mwaiwathu is the first private hospital laboratory to be accredited in Malawi. Until 2020, there was no accredited laboratory in Malawi. The first laboratories to be accredited were the Government’s Malawi Bureau of Standards, Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Lab. Among the Privately owned laboratories and those affiliated to a Private Hospitals, Mwaiwathu Private Hospital Laboratory was the first to be accredited.

Q: What are the main challenges your lab experiences?  

A: Supply chain of reagents and consumables. Most of the reagents are imported outside Malawi. The biggest challenge has been unavailability of foreign currencies to enable banks to pay the external suppliers. This has resulted in major stock outs for the laboratory. 

Q: Are there any exciting future plans for the lab that you want to share?

A: We plan to extend the scope of the accreditation to the rest of the test menu. Currently only the Chemistry scope is accredited. Our future plans are to extend the scope to Hematology, Immunoassay, Microbiology, and Parasitology.