25 Mar 2013

The Minister of Health, Dr John Seakgosing says his ministry is aware that a lot of resources necessary for proper service delivery were in short supply throughout the country.

However, Dr Seakgosing appealed to MPs to understand the predicament that the government was facing due to shortage of funds.

He was responding to MPs’ contributions to the budget proposal of the Ministry of Health.

He said although there was a serious shortage of ambulances across all health facilities, it was worth noting that some district health management teams had recently received some ambulances.

He added that although this was a mere drop in the ocean, it was a sign that something was being done to try and normalise the situation.

The minister also decried the general lack of care by some drivers in the government, saying it exacerbated the shortage of vehicles.

Dr Seakgosing, who is also the MP for Kweneng South, said the electrification of health facilities and staff houses was ongoing.

He also pointed out that it was the government’s intention to upgrade health facilities as well as roll-out ARV services to all health centres.

He said the roll-out of the ARV services would help monitor adherence to medication as there was a likelihood of some patients on therapy failing to receive their medication as scheduled due to having to travel long distances to health centres which provide such services.

On the request by Tonota North MP, Mr Fidelis Molao that the Sebina and Mathangwane clinics operate for 24 hours, the minister said depending on the availability of staff, such a development would be effected in the next financial year.

On the clustering of villages to ease access to health services, he pointed out that currently there were 183 clusters, 139 of which have doctors.

He stated that the country was finding it excessively difficult to recruit doctors due to the low salaries offered.

Meanwhile, Parliament approved a recurrent budget totaling over P4 billion and a sum over P133 million as the development budget for the ministry for the 2013/14 financial year. ENDS