19 Mar 2019

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Alfred Madigele, says Chemistry and CD4 tests are important for monitoring diseases and determining how different organs are functioning in patients.

Responding to a question in Parliament on March 18 ,  Dr Madigele said during the downtimes of the CD4 machine, Letlhakane Primary Hospital samples were tested at Rakops Primary Hospital, Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital (NRH) and Orapa Mine Hospital.

He highlighted that a new chemistry machine had been installed and was functional as of December 2018. The CD4 machine mother board and calibration issues were rectified and the machine was functional as of February 2019.

“Currently both chemistry and CD4 count machines are operational and testing of patient samples is done at Letlhakane Primary School, he said.

Dr Madigele pointed out that there was a time where there was a communication with NRH for sending samples for chemistry to them and they were agreeing provided Boteti DHMT sent a lab technician to run the samples as they were short-staffed. “This did not work well for Boteti DHMT due to budgetary issues and the DHMT opted to send the samples to Rakops,” he said.

Parliament learnt that Letlhakane Primary Hospital has five technical personnel. He added that ‘while we appreciate that there is shortage of manpower country-wide, it is worth noting that there is no vacant post at the hospital for lab personnel, hence there are no plans to deploy more officers.’

Minister Madigele pointed out that the planned hospital would have a fully-fledged laboratory. It was initially proposed for 2018/19 financial year; however, it could not be constructed due to budgetary ceiling constraints. It was also not in the 2019/2020 financial year for the same reasons.

Dr Madigele was responding to Boteti East legislator, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe who had asked if the minister was aware that for the good part of 2018, CD4 and Chemistry tests were not done in Letlhakane Primary Hospital laboratory.

He also wanted to know the importance of CD4 and Chemistry tests in disease control and also if the ministry had denied Boteti East constituents access to these tests and sought also an update on the current situation.

MP Lelatisitswe enquired on whether NRH and Sekgoma Memorial Hospital declined to do samples from Letlhakane Primary Hospital and reasons for declining.

He also sought to know when more officers would be deployed to Letlhakane and whether the planned hospital would have a fully-fledged laboratory and when it would be delivered. ENDS