19 Sep 2013

Mmadinare Primary Hospital is in a poor and despairing state because of sewerage problems, non- functioning toilets, out-of-service laundry machines and broken sterilizing equipment.

The hospital’s chief administration officer, Ms Marvilyn Benn, said in an interview that the hospital had been experiencing these problems for some time and that authorities were aware of the situation.

Ms Benn said the hospital had to take its laundry either at Bobonong Primary Hospital, Sekgoma Memorial Hospital in Serowe or Nyangangbwe Referral Hospital in Francistown.

About the broken sterilizing equipment, Ms Benn said, "this is also one major problem because the machines are used to sterilise instruments used when women are giving birth. You cannot use unsterilsed equipment during this procedure because it poses a health danger to both the mother and the baby.”

The hospital took its gadgets to hospitals in Selebi Phikwe, Serowe, Bobonong or Francistown for sterilisation. She described the situation as a set back to the operations of the hospital because it had two vehicles only.

“When one vehicle leaves for Francistown to get instruments sterilized, the other takes the hospital laundry to Bobonong leaving us with no transport to assist patients in times of emergency or respond to emergency calls in the village,” she said.

Ms Benn also said the hospital had one toilet only at the general ward for men, women, children and other patients from the isolation ward. She added that the sewerage tank was too small for the hospital and was overflowing and thus posing further health problems to the patients.

Another problem was that some of the lights in two consulting rooms were not working. She said since the Department of Building and Engineering Services stopped providing maintenance service to the hospital, the latter had been experiencing problems. However, a tendering process was ongoing for maintenance work at Mmadinare Primary Hospital.

Mmadinare’s senior chief’s representative, Mr Phokuntsi Seeletso, expressed concern at the poor state of the hospital facilities. He called on the Ministry of Health to treat the matter seriously and to respond to as soon as possible because the situation threatened the health of Mmadinare residents. Ends