13 Feb 2019

Princes Marina Referral Hospital is faced with a high workload as a result of being under staffed and under resourced, says the hospital assistant superintendent Dr Monkgogi Goepamang.

Addressing Tlokweng Sub- council meeting on Tuesday, Dr Goepamang said that the hospital was in need of nurses, medical doctors and specialists.

“Almost all departments in the hospital are understaffed and they face dire need of medical specialists,” he said.

He said that many doctors had left public hospital for greener pastures as a result of low wages and further explained that government took years to fill the vacant posts.

Dr Goepamang said that the process of recruiting nurses from the training institutions was not easy due to lack of posts at the hospital, yet the hospital needs them.

Further, Dr Goepamang said that some of the hospital’s machines such as the x-ray machine and CT scan were old  and needed to be replaced.

He stated that while there were plans to replace the X-ray machine, the hospital could not afford to keep on maintaining the machine, which shows defects time and again.

As for the CT scans, Dr Goepamang said the machines were only found at Princes Marina and Nyangagwe referral hospital.

If any of the machines encountered problems, he said there would be congestion at one of the health facilities.

Amid the challenges, he stated that some of the workload was a result of the public who prefer to go to Marina hospital even for minor illnesses such as flu.

Dr Goepamang said even though Princess Marina was a referral hospital, most patients prefer to seek medical help for minor illnesses at the hospital than at nearby clinics.

This, he said, contributed to congestion experienced at the hospital.  

The Hospital Accidents and Emergency Specialist physician, Dr Kago Mokute said Princes Marina Referral Hospital received a huge volume of patients daily.

Dr Mokute said the hospital did not help patients on first come first serve basis, but rather assesses illness and severity of the medical problem and thereby determines the urgency of care.

“This helps us to expedite care to patients with life threatening conditions,” said Dr Mokute.

Councillors had earlier complained of poor service at the hospital, saying most of the problems at the hospital were systematic and could be addressed.

They also called for the revising of the doctors’ pay structure, timely review of the health policy and timely replacement of machines. Ends