Government says it working on having agreements with service providers in hospitals as one way of ensuring swift maintenance of equipment.

According to Minister of Health Khumbize Chiponda, it is worrisome to note that most equipment in the country`s hospitals are not maintained once they break down due to absence of service agreement with providers.

“As a ministry, we are having a policy that whenever we buy an equipment we should have maintenance agreement with the service provider which is very important,” she said.

“You will find out that most of our equipment in the hospitals they start working but when something breaks down there is no proper follow up or there is maintenance because the one who supplied they only supplied and they disappeared.”

Chiponda added that the challenge of having malfunctioning equipment is common in many government hospitals and there is urgent need of establishing such timely agreement.

“Many hospitals in the country are sailing through this challenge of having equipment that are not working,” she said.