15 Dec 2020

The Ministry of Health and Wellness has committed to filling the post of hospital superintendent at Scottish Hospital within the next financial year.

This was said by the assistant minister Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe who noted that efforts for immediate replacement of the retired superintendent were constrained by lack of suitable candidates.

The hospital has been operating without hospital superintendent when post became vacant in 2019.

He said the bed capacity of the Scottish Hospital was 350 compared to 120 beds of the old hospital.

Mr Lelatisitswe said the exponential increase in number of beds was necessary to cater for the possible rapid population growth of Molepolole and surrounding areas that refer patients to the facility.

He further mentioned that the relocation to the new hospital did not change operational structure, and that the new Scottish Hospital was operating according the function of a district hospital just like Serowe, Letsholathebe which he said were in the same category.

Furthermore, he explained that the ministry monitored the workload at the facility to identify and address the need for additional resources. He said currently, the average bed occupancy rate for Scottish Hospital was low at 60 per cent.

He pointed out that the ratio of professional staff to patients at Scottish Hospital was 375 and 39 patients respectively for a doctor and nurse.

He said the ratios stated above suggested adequate staff levels compared to the international standards of 23 per 10 000 population for both doctors and nurses.

Mr Lelatisitswe also clarified to Parliament that the duties of health professionals conferred statutory accountability and could not be allocated randomly to staff.

He stated that currently allocation of duties to the nurses was guided by their Job Effectiveness Descriptions which were formulated based on what nurses had been trained for.

He said his ministry was committed to implementing robust in-service training for all health professionals to cater for emerging needs and changes in clinical practice.

He said this was achieved through annual skills inventory and opportunities of training slots for both short term and long term training.

The minister was responding to a question from Molepolole North MP, Mr Oabile Regoeng who wanted to know if the minister was aware that Scottish Livingstone Hospital in Molepolole operated without a substantive hospital superintendent for a long time.

Mr Regoeng also wanted to know whether upon the relocation to the new building, the hospital reviewed its operational structure to match the increased number of beds and other clinical work, the ration of nursing staff to doctors, nursing staff to patient and doctor to patient at the hospital. ENDS