News

Malawi’s first 1.5T MRI scanner is now installed at LION

October 20- 2023

Siemens South Africa have now installed Malawi’s first full size 1.5 Tesla MRI machine at The Lilongwe Institute of Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery (LION). Final preparations and topping up of the liquid helium used to cool the superconductor magnet are going on and the machine is expected to be operational and ready for testing and training from the 25th of October 2023. Normal services are expected to start up in November.

This advanced machine was funded, along with the whole Trond Mohn Diagnostics Building at LION, by the Norwegian philanthropist Mr Trond Mohn. To be able to maintain and run such a complex and expensive machine this service will be run mostly as a paying service, though public patients admitted to KCH or LION will be considered according to need and capacity when referred from a specialist.

THE NATIONAL ARTHROPLASTY REGISTER OF THE MALAWI ORTHOPAEDIC ASSOCIATION(NARMOA) MOVES TO LION

The National Arthroplasty Register of the Malawi Orthopaedic Association (NARMOA) was established in 2005 by surgeons at Beit CURE International Hospital in Blantyre. The register registers all joint replacement surgery done in Malawi with the aim to improve results and patient safety by monitoring what implants and techniques are used.

Due to CURE having ceased to treat adult patients, the NARMOA was transferred to LION in August 2023. LION is currently the only facility offering joint replacement surgery in Malawi.

Mr Chipiliro Moffat is in charge of the day-to-day running of NARMOA and recently relocated from Blantyre to LION. We are very pleased to have him and the NARMOA on board and hope this will be the seed for a centre for national quality registers at LION’s new research centre that is under construction.

LION’s five modern operating theatres are now live.

LION performed the first surgical operations in the new theatres on 21 st August 2023. We are now doing our best to keep up momentum and clear the backlog of the many patients injured in traffic every day.

LION radiology department is up and running

The top modern LION radiology department is now up and running for non-paying patients. In the first 4 weeks LION performed over 400 CT examinations for KCH non-paying patients. Paying services should be available soon.

LION WAS OFFICIALLY INAUGURATED ON 28 TH APRIL 2023 BY H.E. PRESIDENT LAZARUS M.CHAKWERA

His Excellency President Lazarus M. Chakwera officially opened the Lilongwe Institute of Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery (LION) at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) on the 28 th of April 2023. The project has been in the making for over 10 years as a collaboration between Kamuzu Central Hospital, Ministry of Health, Haukeland University Hospital (HUH) in Norway, The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Lilongwe, AO Alliance, and CBM. The Mohn family from Bergen, Norway, have funded a major portion of the project through HUH.

LION is owned and run by the LION Trust, but serves as the department of orthopaedics and neurosurgery for KCH providing essential services to the public for free, and is fully staffed by the Government. Paying services will become available to generate income to add to the government funding and subsidise the non-paying services and maintenance of the facility.
During the opening, the President, together with all the delegates toured the newly constructed hospital’s Radiology and Laboratory departments, General Wards, Paying Wards, Operating Theatres, and the Out Patient Department (OPD).

Speaking at the event, the president extended his special thanks to the government of Norway and Norwegian businessman and Philanthropist Mr Trond Mohn and his family for their generous financial support for the construction of the facility.

Here H.E. President Lazarus M. Chakwera is seen shaking hands with Mr Trond Mohn after unveiling the plaque for the new radiology building named after Mr Mohn at LION.