One of the nurses who opted for anonymity says life has been hard for them to survive; hence, resolving to work on part time basis for other medical personnel at the hospital despite reaching out to hospital authorities with complaints.

He says they get a maximum amount of K5 thousand per part time shift.

"We haven't received our small allowances for the past two months now. Hospital authorities are aware of this but they say funding isn't available," he lamented.

Machinga health office spokesperson, Clifton Ngozo has acknowledged the problem but attributed it to an early depletion of funds from Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) account.

He has, however, promised to pay the nurses soon as funds are available.

"We hope to pay the said nurses soon as we receive funding," said Ngozo.

Machinga district hospital hired the locum nurses in an effort to deal with shortage of medical personnel which is in most hospitals of the country.