01 Apr 2019

Ministry of Health and Wellness is going through the decentralisation process.

Minister  Alfred Madigele says  as such procurement of drugs, transport and transfer issues, among others, will be addressed at regional level.

Dr Madigele told the Rakops Primary Hospital management recently after a tour of Rakops Primary Hospital that decentralisation  ensured that districts would be upgraded to region status. That, he said would address staff issues such as transfer and disgruntlement in the workplace.

He therefore urged management and officers responsible to fast-track procurement of some of the services and equipment urgently needed at the hospital.

Dr Madigele  further stated that Sekgoma, Mahalapye and Scottish Livingstone hospitals would be upgraded to referral standard. 

Meanwhile, procurement and project management director, Mr Gilbert Matome  said Rakops hospital  was due for  a holistic maintenance and explained that floating of the tender would start this month. Mr Matome said that they had engaged consultants in 2018 to assess the buildings, electrical and mechanical, which  took long because of the state of the hospital, noting that  Rakops and Letlhakane hospitals would be given priority. 

He siad that the newly constructed theater at the Rakops hospital had failed testing for electricity, stating that they had to do a face lift and were planning to commission a back-up generator to easily pick when power goes off. Mr Matome said water treatment for the hospital had to be done so that hard water would not damage equipment. 

Further, Mr Matome said that plans had been put in place to use non-burn technology for clinical waste so that the machine would not produce hazardous fumes and harm the environment.

Instead, he said that waste  would be disposed in a manner that it would not cause any harm to the environment. 

For his part, chief biomedical engineer Mr Mooketsi Bafana said the hospital X-ray machine had reached its lifespan of age 10. 

He noted that moreover it had to be changed from analogue to digital. 

Mr Bafana said the medical equipment such as autoclave and surgical equipment would be installed in six months. 

Human resource officer, Ms Motlatsi Mogotsi said the hospital matron and medical officer at D2 level would have reported for duty yesterday. 

Ms Mogotsi said an anesthetic nurse would be transferred from Gumare to Rakops since Gumare had two nurses. She stated that placing of the ophthalmic nurse would take time because the ministry was rationing staffing. 

In addition, she said they recently received two dental officers and one would be posted to Rakops. She noted that degree holders could  progress up to D1, stating that C scale was multiple graded and officers stagnate at C1 because to progress to D4 level there should be a vacancy. 

The hospital official Ms Rosalia Maseba said the hospital staff was aggrieved with issues of progression, citing that auxiliary officers had stagnated.

Ms Maseba also urged the ministry to arrange accommodation at referral centres and also pleaded with the ministry to consider transferring married employees to join their spouses. ends