16 Oct 2017

Government aims to maximise services and ensure efficient service delivery in all health facilities country-wide.

The Assistant Minister of Health and Wellness, Mr Kefentse Mzwinila said this when addressing Letlhakane Primary Hospital management team recently.

Mr Mzwinila stated that health and wellness was one of the ministries which had always been prioritised when allocating budget, but performance contradicted capital injected.

He said it was essential to optimise services, saying drug allocation had been de-centralised to try and enhance service provision.

He said it was critical to establish strategies that could be employed to enhance service provision, saying people should be more concerned with addressing wellness.

He stated that government was dealing with competing national priorities which were in existence for allocation of budget.

Mr Mzwinila said government was trying to address a burden of accommodation shortage, saying there was a backlog of 60 000 housing units across all ministries.

Letlhakane chief medical officer, Dr Jacqueline Kasambala had complained of shortage of staff in some cadres such as doctors, pharmacists, midwives and other supporting staff as well as no replacement of transferred officers. 

She stated that 15 nurses were transferred out and replaced with another 15 who were at lower level positions.

Dr Kasambala said there was also delayed promotion and progression of officers, adding there was unfair and delay in transfer of staff.

Lack of accommodation, she said, was a serious challenge, stating there were 44 institutional houses and 18 of which are bachelor flats which were dilapidated to cater for an average of 199 staff in Letlhakane only.

The hospital management also complained that the hospital was operating with five doctors and four were inexperienced.

One of the new junior doctors confirmed that they lacked mentorship, saying they only have two years’ work experience.BOPA