Mozambique: Weather events wreck 472 health facilities since 2019 – president

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Mozambique: Weather events wreck 472 health facilities since 2019 – president

7:22 CAT | 06 Jan 2025

File photo: Lusa

At least 472 health facilities have been destroyed as a result of climatic events in Mozambique since 2019, the country’s president, Filipe Nyusi, said on Monday, announcing funding guarantees for the construction of 12 more district hospitals.

“It is important to remember that, in addition to the scarcity of resources, the implementation of this initiative [One district, one hospital] has been carried out in a context of multiple adversities including extreme weather events that have damaged 472 health facilities since 2019,” said the head of state during the inauguration of the Matutuine district hospital in Maputo province, in the south of the country.

According to the Mozambican president, another 32 health facilities were destroyed during terrorist attacks that have affected the northern province of Cabo Delgado since 2016.

Despite these destructions, the Mozambican president assured that the hospital network has grown in the last five years in the country, especially with the implementation of the presidential initiative ‘One district, one hospital’.

Nyusi stated that the country now provides direct hospital coverage to at least 4.4 million people, also pointing to improvements in indicators regarding the population ratio for each hospital unit, which fell from 17,514 patients in 2019 to 16,393 for one health unit in 2024.

“In 2019, only 29%, or 45 of our country’s 154 districts, had a district hospital (…) With the implementation of the initiative, in five years, since 2019, eight district hospitals have come into operation,” declared Filipe Nyusi.

Nyusi also said that from 2019 to 2023 the distance travelled in rural areas to reach a health facility had been reduced from 12 to 10 kilometres.

The president announced that Mozambique has funding guarantees for the construction of 12 more district hospitals to start this year, as part of the same presidential initiative.

According to data from the most recent yearbook of the National Statistics Institute (INE), the number of health units in Mozambique has increased by 10% in the last five years, reaching 1,841 of all types by the end of 2023.

According to the document, with data for the period since 2019, which Lusa previously reported, Mozambique reached 15 central and provincial hospitals, 55 district, rural and general hospitals, 1,659 health centres and 112 health posts by the end of 2023.

In 2019, the total number of health units in operation, according to INE, was 1,674, translating into a balance of 167 infrastructures in operation, mainly health centres.

Source: Lusa