03 Apr 2014

The Ministry of Health has as of June 03, 2013 appointed Stobech Facilities Management as the facilities manager for all health facilities for a period of 12 months.

Under this contract, Stobech Facilities Management facilitated the vetting, appointment, and supervision of maintenance contractors in the areas of electrical, mechanical, and building fabrics.

Answering a question on behalf of Minister of Health, Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi said the appointment of an outsourced facilities manager was intended to address a long history of inadequate maintenance in government health facilities that had compromised service delivery and caused financial losses due to deterioration of assets.

He said due to a vast maintenance across the country, the facilities manager had to give priority to the most critical needs, namely: mechanical, electrical, and selected building fabrics works at seven major hospitals of Princess Marina, Nyangagbwe, Sbrana Psychiatric, Scottish Livingstone, Mahalapye District, Sekgoma Memorial and Letsholathebe Memorial.

He noted that these works were in various stages of progress. However, he said, similar efforts had also been directed at Deborah Retief Memorial Hospital and Athlone Hospital, with work at the former having been completed, and that at the latter set to get underway.

In addition to the above, the facilities manager has also prioritised the repair and ongoing maintenance of boilers, chillers, water treatment plants and x-ray facilities in major hospitals.

This, he said, will ensure that critical services such as laundries, bathrooms, kitchens, theatres and radiology units operate in the required manner. Mr Molebatsi said this will not only enhance service delivery, but also ensure the safety of both patients and staff.

Work is in progress on these assets and many have been repaired and brought back online. The minister further noted that the facilities manager has also established a national call centre into which health facilities from across the country can report general maintenance requirements.

He told Parliament that since its establishment in July 2013, the call center has logged more than 3000 calls. Approximately 60 per cent of the calls have been attended to and jobs closed.

With the assistance of the facilities manager, the ministry has created a database of 44 citizen owned contractors who can readily be appointed on a framework contract basis to attend to general maintenance jobs around the country.

The House was informed that during the first quarter of the 2014/2015 financial year, this number will be further increased in order to enhance the ability to address the maintenance backlog more efficiently.

In the meantime, in Letlhakeng West, inspections will be carried out at Dutlwe, Kaudwane, Metsibotlhoko and Sesung during April and May 2014, after which, maintenance works will commence.

To date, however, maintenance works have been carried out at the following facilities of; Khekhenye, Motokwe, Tsetseng, and Salajwe. At Salajwe, major refurbishment on two houses are complete and at final inspection stage.

Further inspections have been carried at Tshwaane and Salajwe clinics with a view to commencing maintenance works by the end of May 2014. However minister Molebatsi said there can be no doubt that they will continue to face challenges in the maintenance of health facilities.

Nonetheless he said they have adopted a new strategy of utilising and outsourced facilities manager. He said this is consideration considered best practice and is therefore widely used in the private sector and have already seen improvements in various facilities.

MP for Letlhakeng West, Mr Ngaka Ngaka had asked the Minister of Health to update the House about the performance of Stobech Company which is responsible for the maintenance of health facilities in Letlhakeng West constituency and when they will maintain Metsibotlhoko, Sesung, Kaudwane and Dutlwe clinics. Ends