01 Jun 2015

The Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso, has implored management of the Mahalapye Hospital to work hard towards providing a good service to the people.

Speaking during her visit to the hospital recently, Ms Tshireletso, who is also the MP for Mahalapye East, requested the hospital management team not to allow the challenges they faced to discourage them.

She said she found it fitting that as the area MP, she should visit them once in a while to interact with them and familiarise herself with their challenges so that she could help in addressing them.

The assistant minister said Mahalapye hospital covered a vast area; as such she pleaded with staff to carry on the good work for the communities they served.

She said their morale should be boosted by their success in service delivery, and the numbers of patients they have assisted.

She explained that the government was also doing all it could to make sure that nurses and doctors in the country also benefited from government initiatives, especially that they handled essential services.

Ms Tshireletso said the government was planning to refurbish the old Mahalapye Hospital to minimise congestion at the new hospital.

On drugs, she said the government was aware that there were shortages of drugs in some hospital and clinics and that the government was doing what it could to avail them.

When briefing the Assistant Minister, Mahalapye Hospital Superintendent Dr Kunal Bose said Mahalapye DHMT had 42 facilities, two hospitals, Mahalapye District Hospital and Sefhare Primary Hospital, 12 clinics and 28 health posts. Dr Bose said also Mahalapye DHMT served 29 mobile stops, mostly in the western sandveldt areas.

He said Mahalapye Hospital was the referral center for orthopedics for the northern part of the country and has also been identified as the second centre for excellence for orthopedics, the other being Princess Marina Hospital.

He said World Spine Care had opened two clinics; being Mahalapye District Hospital and Shoshong Clinic, adding that they had also provided cell phones with monthly airtime to all facilities for better communication.

However, Dr Bose said, despite all that, their main challenges included the shortage of staff, especially doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacist; hence the hospital was not operating at its full potential.

He said also the hospital cafeteria had never been operational since the hospital opened in 2008.

He noted that the shortage of accommodation was at crisis level considering that there were only 60 institutional houses for 600 workers; as such some staff members have to share houses.

Dr Bose said there was urgent need to acquire institutional houses from private and parastal sector like BHC.

Other problems, he said included transport challenges, noting that currently 17 vehicles were in garages with only 23 were on the road of which seven were for the clinics.

Lastly, he said the psychiatry unit had been designed inappropriately; hence there were a lot of defects. He certain structures like doors had been damaged by patients and the seclusion rooms had been damaged; as such the unit needed a thorough make over. ENDS