04 Apr 2017

Parliament has been told in an endeavor to improve access to specialists’ services in the country, the Ministry of Health and Wellness have been placing five basic specialists in all district hospitals, including Letsholathebe II Memorial Hospital.

Minister of Health and Wellness, Ms Dorcas Makgato said due to high turnover of specialist staff from public service and the difficulty in recruiting specialists from the job market, the ministry experiences challenges in providing these categories of specialist.

The said five basic specialists include physician, anesthesiologist, general surgeon, gynecologists and pediatrician.

Ms Makgato said the resident physician’s and surgeon’s contracts at Letsholathebe II Memorial Hospital came to an end in February 2017 and replacement would be made as soon as recruitment was complete.

However, she said there was one family physician currently providing specialist services.

“Currently, Letsholathebe II Memorial Hospital has 32 midwives out of a total of 50, deployed to different clinical areas in the hospital.

There are plans to deploy more midwives to the facility, but this is frustrated by the acute shortage of midwives country wide.

Furthermore, she said the DHMT management had been given authority to move around their staff as they deemed necessary.

“My ministry has no plans to post an orthopedic surgeon to Letsholathebe II Memorial Hospital as orthopedic cases are attended to by the surgeons and in the event that further specialist care is needed, the cases are referred to Mahalapye Referral Hospital,” she said.

MP for Maun East, Mr Kostantinos Markus had asked the minister if she would consider deploying specialist services such as a physician, surgeon, additional midwives and an orthopaedic surgeon to Letsholathebe II Memorial Hospital. ENDS