08 May 2014

Stakeholders have commended the Ministry of Health for developing service standards to enhance the reputation of the health system.

They welcomed the standards during a panel discussion to determine how they perceived them and how they would improve service delivery.  Among the panelists were representatives from environmental health, emergency medical service, primary health and Kagiso Funeral Parlour. 

The other objective was to raise awareness so that stakeholders could understand the standards, own them and implement them properly.

They said the introduction of the service standards was a move in the right direction as it would address complaints by customers and also improve services delivery as it calls for excellence to meet the customer’s expectations.

An environmental officer in Maun, Mr Isaac Mphafe, said the standards came at the right time, adding that health and environmental practitioners should adopt them to execute their duties diligently. He said the standards should be enduring enough to serve future generations.

“I am happy that the standards had touched issues related to safety of patients and I can tell that issue of waste management had been a challenge to all local authorities as they have been not doing good enough be it waste collection and disposal,” he added.

Mr Mphafe said domestic animals such as dogs and goats had developed an appetite to consume waste. Therefore, he said, he hoped that the service standards would cover the environmental aspects of health.

Chief Registered Nurse, Ms Boitshwarelo Mbwe, said she was optimistic that the standards would transform the way the health sector had been doing things. She said they had been working on a vacuum and now things were done in writing. 

She said since the implementation of the standards the primary health facilities made efforts to make services accessible to the communities they serve. 

She said communication had improved a lot as they had been using roja rojas which compromised confidentiality of the patients and now they had been issued with cell phones and land lines in all the facilities.

Ms Mbwe said she also hoped that shortage of drugs would be a thing of the past if service standards were adhered to. However, she mentioned challenges such as poor infrastructure, with some clinics in need of repair.

Dr Maxwell Mungisi, the superintendent of Letsholathebe Memorial Hospital, urged health practitioners to change their attitudes and be passionate about their jobs so that the service standards could produce the expected results. 

He said quality service delivery called for excellence, going beyond customers’ expectation, eliminating waste and doing the right thing at first to satisfy the customer. Ends