11 Jul 2016

Princess Marina Hospital recently brought together its stakeholders to share experiences and get feedback on how to improve service delivery.

The third stakeholders Pitso held in Gaborone was attended by various health professionals from district Health Management Teams and hospitals from the Southern part of the country.

Princess Marina Hospital (PMH) superintendent Dr Kelebogile Motumise, told those who attended that interactions were to continually engage relevant stakeholders so as to strengthen and close the gaps in service delivery.

He said the hospital was the largest and busiest referral hospital in Botswana serving the Southern part of the country offering a wide spectrum of services both preventive and curative.

“It serves as a primary, district and tertiary hospital. The hospital is a 567 bedded unit with an average inpatient of 750. There are about 600 nurses, 147 doctors and there is an average of 2 500 patients seen daily in our outpatients department,” said Dr Motumise.

Dr Motumise also indicated that over the last seven years, PMH introduced centres of excellence which includes open heart surgery, hip or knee replacement, spinal cord injury rehabilitation, diabetes, hypertensive disorder for pregnancy and hemodialysis.

However, he said despite successes and achievements at Marina, there were also some challenges.

“Princess Marina management and staff have identified the top priority for urgent attention such as overcrowding, drug availability, shortage of space, referral challenges and staff welfare issues,” he said.

In his remarks, clinical director Dr Ishmael Mokone highlighted that overcrowding was one of the issues which caused concern at PMH.

He said the situation entails whereby more patients are often squeezed or filled in a cubicle or ward more than the space or bed capacity leading to floor beds and reduced space between either beds or floor mattresses.

Dr Mokone explained that factors contributing to overcrowding were both internal and external such as absence of primary or district hospital in Gaborone hence direct referral to tertiary hospital from clinics and self-referrals.

He also said absence of a step down facility where Princess Marina Hospital can offload to, hence patients kept till discharge was also a challenge.

For the internal factors Dr Mokone said infrastructural issues were also a contributing factor to overcrowding since the Hospital had limited space for expansion to help cope with increasing population. 

He said if expanded, it will impact positively through provision of more space for consultations, theatre time and addition of new services.

He also said Princess Marina as a lodging facility accommodate patients who are on transit to other facilities within or outside the country as well as mothers lodging for their children on daily basis.

He said overcrowding as a result compromised on quality of care, poor infection control, security and safety of patients as well as staff confidentiality and privacy. ENDS