02 Jul 2015

Lobatse Town Council mayor, Ms Malebogo Kruger, has hailed a move by the Ministry of Health to improve drug availability at district level.

Officially opening a full council session in Lobatse, Ms Kruger applauded the ministry for providing districts with funds to procure pharmaceutical items locally in emergency cases when the central supplier is unable to supply.

“This is a much welcome initiative as it will allow us to independently purchase some vital items when they are unavailable at Central Medical Stores,” she said.

The mayor also highlighted that drug availability for Lobatse District Health Management Team has been steadily improving over the years. She indicated that the drug availability for 2014/15 financial year was 89 per cent.

She pointed out that there was shortage of hypertensive drugs which were out of stock throughout the country, though some alternative drugs were availed and prescribed to patients.

She also said the Hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) drugs for hypertension were now available in Lobatse health facilities.

Ms Kruger also commended the establishment of the Emergency Medical Services that is independent from hospital services.

That, she said has brought better service to patients in need of ambulance and quick medical service as the staff has been working round the clock to ensure good turnaround time.

On issues of crime, the mayor indicated that 77 cases of violent and serious cases were recorded during the period under review as compared to 92 cases during the same period last year.

That, she said recorded a decrease of 19 per cent.

Crime in the area, she said was due to having bushy areas around the town, as well as non-functionality of streets lights.

“Concerted efforts to conduct joint operations and patrols are in place to curb the situation,” she said.

Ms Kruger appealed to the community through the help of councillors to assist the police to fight crime in town.

The mayor also appealed to the community to follow procedure and obtain necessary work and residence permits when employing foreigners.

She said such permits should be obtained prior to such foreigners working or residing in the country.

With regards to the e- passport notification service, the mayor said the SMS notification has been restored and now working.

With that in place, she said passports applicants would be notified when their passports were ready for collection or for any notification such as the common fingerprint mismatch.

In an effort to take services to the people, the mayor said the immigration department would dispatch passports to places wherethere were no immigration offices to cut down on the distance travelled to service station. That, she said also comes as a way of reducing the number of uncollected passports. ENDS