07 May 2017

Assistant Minister of Health and Wellness, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele has implored the management of Kanye Seventh Day Adventist (KSDA) Hospital to find innovative ways of tackling their challenges.

Mr Makgalemele, who was touring the hospital and college of nursing in Kanye on May 4, said the hospital should find other cost effective means of addressing issues that affect them.

He appreciated the Kanye SDA church for playing a pivotal role in contributing to the hospital and college of nursing.

He said the role of the church stood out in helping the community fight poverty and advocating for good health.

“Churches play a pivotal role in the moulding and raising of children and it helps them practice good morals as well as groom them into God fearing individuals,’’ he said.

He went on to say that churches should be considered a house of comfort as well as the right platform to get guidance and counselling.

Mr Makgalemele also made an appeal for the hospital staff to up their game and improve the way they served the public, noting that the government’s 10-point-agenda initiative and customer service standards should be adhered to at all costs.

The assistant minister noted that some churches in Botswana had helped in building schools, hospitals and providing social help to the community by helping the less privileged and vulnerable individuals.

He encouraged them to respect their customers, give feedback, and maintain professionalism at all times.

Mr Makgalemele urged the staaff of the hospital to display their service standards to avoid queries.

He also advised them to support local businesses by procuring services and products from them.

He said they also need to find ways of attracting the private sector so that they too could help where necessary.

Mr Makgalemele also called on Batswana to make their health a priority, adding that if people could be health cautious, many diseases and deaths could be avoided.

He said healthy employees prospered because they felt valued and were highly motivated not just at work, but in their general outlook in life.

Hospital Superintendent, Dr Innocent Mungandu said the management of Kanye SDA Church and the SDA College of Nursing wanted to contribute to national development, especially in Kanye where the SDA community wanted to be a leading light of progress.

Dr Mungandu praised government for giving a hand in assisting mission hospitals, adding that they recently acquired four new ambulances.

Concerning challenges, he said the hospital’s infrastructure was old and that they also struggled with shortage of nurses and specialists as well as accommodation.

Besides old infrastructure, he also highlighted shortage of water.

The hospital has 167 beds and 150 nurses.

The nursing college is also running short of laboratories and slow replacement of lectures. ENDS