Jenda Health Centre has reduced defaulter rate from 44.9 to 1%. The District ART Coordinator for Mzimba South Blessings Kamanga told a meeting convened by the Network of Journalists Living with HIV (JONEHA) on 8 October 2021 in Salima that the district has 31 health facilities 13 of which including Jenda are supported by Lighthouse with funding from the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
Kamanga said the positive defaulter rate at Jenda just like some facilities in the district is a result of many factors to which Light House responded by calling for a stakeholder consultation meeting on 30th April 2021. Among issues discussed at Jenda then was agreeing on a common formulae used to define defaulter rate. Again the meeting focused on developing population and culturally sensitive specific interventions.
These included engaging target populations such as female sex workers, seasonal farmers and business people for mobile markets. Housewives were also noted as among populations with high defaulter rates for reaching out. The specified populations were to be mobilized through existing leadership supported by traditional leaders. The interventions also included increasing staff like clinicians, providers, training and mentoring data collectors. Another key intervention was to extend clinic hours from 7 am to 5.30 pm and extend closing time from 5.00 pm to 6.00 pm to accommodate recipients of care who for many reasons could not come during normal hours. Elsewhere among facilities in Mzimba district; Kamanga reported of scaling up Differentiated Service Delivery Models (DSD) by reintroducing teen clubs and utilization of a multi month scripting to cover Malawians who go to South Africa for different reasons to have access to a 12-month refill.
The ART Coordinator disclosed that for the district to reduce the district average 5% default rate further; it is planning to establish ART friendly and outreach clinics, develop a welcome back to care for recipients of care returning to care upon being traced and developing an efficient recipient of care follow up models through deployment of the underutilized support groups.
