29 Jul 2020

Bamalete Lutheran Hospital (BLH) is a private entity whose operations fall exclusively under the discretion of the owners, being the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Botswana.

This was said by Assistant Minster of Health and Wellness, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe when responding to a question in Parliament on Tuesday.

He said the overall governance of the organisation was driven by the hospital board which was responsible for oversight of the hospital and that the day-to-day operations of the hospital was management’s responsibility under the supervision of the hospital superintendent.

He said being an autonomous establishment, BHL was collaborating with government for the provision of health services in the South East District, through a renewable 36 months grant agreement.

Furthermore, he said as per the agreement, the Ministry of Health and Wellness only provided partial funding to support the day-to-day operations of the hospital, including staff salaries and allowances that were similar to their counterparts in government.

In addition the assistant minister said his ministry also seconded mostly professional staff to BLH Mr Lelatisitswe further said as part of the interaction with the hospital at political level, two visits were recently undertaken to engage with the board to appreciate the state of the facility.

He said the first meeting was by the Minister, Dr Lemogang Kwape in December 2019 and the assistant minister of May 2020 in the presence of the area MP and council chair.

He said on both occasions, the facility was found in a healthy state and maintaining its long standing reputation of providing quality services notwithstanding challenges.

Mr Lelatisitswe further said all BLH employees had accordingly benefitted from allowances which would otherwise be enjoyed by their counterparts in government and seconded to the hospital and that there was no report of any discrepancies.

He told Parliament that as per the agreement and the constitution of the hospital, promotions and progression of staff were dealt with by hospital management, as part of human resource issues

According to the assistant minister, BLH had not reported to be having monthly salary arrears due to its employees adding that such day-to-day matters were addressed by the hospital board and its management.

Mr Lelatisitswe said Botswana Public Officers Medical Aid Scheme (BPOMAS) was only limited to public servants and that BLH in its capacity as a mission hospital introduced optional medical aid scheme under the Botswana Medical Aid Society as one of the welfare benefits to its employees who would otherwise not qualify to join BPOMAS.

He was answering Kanye North MP, Mr Thapelo Letsholo, who wanted to know the welfare benefits accruing to different categories of employees at the BLH.

He also wanted to know as to how many have benefitted in relation to allowances, medical aid, upgrading and promotion.

Mr Letsholo also wanted to know the number of employees with 20 to 30 years of experience that had been stuck on one salary scale that was A1 and B4 respectively and whether there were any salary arrears due to employees. ENDS