15 Mar 2013

Government has decided to electrify all clinics in the 2013/14 financial, says Minister of Health, Dr John Seakgosing.

Dr Seakgosing announced this during his visit to the Chobe District Health Management Team (DHMT) in Kasane on March 12.

Outlining challenges faced by his ministry, Dr Seakgosing said there was serious staff shortage in his ministry. “By staff shortage, I am not referring to nurses and doctors, I’m referring to support staff such as cleaners,” he said.

He also said his ministry had requested that they be allowed to maintain their own houses and offices to avoid unnecessary delay. 

Dr Seakgosing said the ministry had 440 vehicles queuing at Central Transport Organisation (CTO), creating an adverse effect on service delivery. “Of the 440, about 198 are ambulances and this affects, among others, our outreach and referral”, he said.

He noted that in most cases, many cars were at CTO because there was no money to buy new car parts. “With the new financial year approaching, we hope things will get better and there will be progress,” he noted.

Dr Seakgosing challenged his ministry’s employees to change their attitudes and to serve this country the way they pledged to when they were sworn in. He noted that his office had received complaints from customers concerning some employees.

On salaries, Dr Seakgosing acknowledged budgetary constraints faced by the ministry, which had incapacitated them from retaining most of his staff.

For his part, head of Chobe DHMT, Dr John Makuka said accommodation remained one of the biggest challenges in the district. “There was supposed to be a doctor at Pandamatenga for the longest time now, but he still has not been able to report for duty because of lack of accommodation,” he said. 

One police representative at the meeting confirmed that a lot of lives were lost to car accidents along the Pandamatenga Road as they often had to transport critical patients all the way to Kasane, which was sometimes three hours away from the scene of the accident.

The minister’s visit was to check on the area’s DHMT progress and forge relations with stakeholders. “Everybody matters, every stakeholder matters, we cannot exist outside our stakeholders” he emphasised. ENDS