12 Nov 2014

Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital Superintendent, Dr Malaki Tshipayagae says the hospital experiences congestion, which can be attributed to lack of understanding of the hospital operations by the patients.

Speaking in a press briefing on November 11, Dr Tshipayagae said the hospital management realised that most of the patients came directly to the referral hospital instead of utilising clinics. He explained that the hospital was a referral and should therefore only assist patients on referral from other facilities.

Dr Tshipayagae said in most cases, patients who came without being referred often faced difficulties accessing services at the hospital. Dr Boago Didimalang, the head of accident and emergency (A&E) said in most cases, the congestion was experienced by his department, leading to patients’ frustrations and in the process abuse medical personnel.

He explained that the department had only six bays that were manned by three teams, each working on 12 hour shifts and the patients were not attended on first come first served basis but categorised according to their conditions.

Dr Didimalang noted that those who came with cases that were not emergencies ended up being frustrated because they would have waitedfor long hours before they being attended to.

The coordinator of emergency medical services (EMS), Mr Thabani Bhebhe appealed to the community to desist from abusing the emergency number 997 because abusing it blocked genuine emergency calls.

Mr Bhebhe said the community should also understand that EMS did not transport victims who lost lives while at home or in emergencies, but only transport patients outside the health facility who have life threatening illnesses, which requires urgent treatment.

The Chief Registered Nurse at the Out-patient department, Ms Gladys Moloi said the department has 23 specialties and caters for only booked patients from Dibete up to Shakawe.

She noted that as part of the department’s effort to address congestion in the facility since July, a cluster booking system, whereby patients are allocated appointments at different interval times was introduced.

Ms Moloi said the system allows the patient to only come to the hospital 15 minutes prior to the consultation time to reduce long waiting times.

She said prior to the cluster bookings, the hospital was forced to lodge patients from far places in the wards, especially if they were consulted late.

In the In-patient services department, Ms Mpotseng Moamogwe said the department was still faced with a challenge of relatives wanting to stay with their patients beyond the stipulated times. She said the visiting times at the hospital are 0645hrs-0715hrs, 1300hrs-1400hrs, 1600hrs-1700hrs and 1900hrs-1930hrs

Ms Moamogwe further said due to limited space in the wards, only three visitors per patient are allowed in the wards while in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) only two are permitted. She explained that although in some facilities spouses accompany each other during labour, in Nyangabgwe it is not allowed because of the structure of the labour ward. 

Francistown District Health Team (DHT) Coordinator, Dr Retta Ayele implored the residents of Francistown to utilise all clinics in the city. He observed that Itekeng (Area W) and Jubilee clinics were always congested whereas some such as Gerald Estate were underutilised.

Dr Ayele also pleaded with the community to desist from travelling from as far as Matsiloje, leaving their local clinics to be consulted in those in Francistown. ENDS