16 Feb 2022

The Ministry of Health and Wellness is financially constrained to upgrade some of the health facilities to operate 24 hours

The Assistant Minister of Health and Wellness, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe said this in response to a question from Francistown South MP, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi in Parliament on Monday.

Mr Lelatisitswe said once the financial situation had improved, upgrading of one of the facilities to 24 hours would be considered.

 He, however, explained to the house that the ministry continued to monitor statistics in order to upgrade health facilities to 24-hour operations.

The assistant minister said in the greater Francistown District Health Management Team (DHMT), there awere 26 medical doctors against 30 of the establishment register.

Mr Lelatisitswe said Francistown South had three clinics; Masego, Lapologang and Botswelelo, all operated until 4:30pm.

He said the establishment register at Masego clinic included four midwives and six general nurses and Lapologang had four midwives and five general nurses while Botswelelo had four midwives and four general nurses.

Regarding maintenance of these clinics, Mr Lelatisitswe noted that major maintenance works had not been done in the past three financial years due to financial and human resources challenges.

On transport related matters, he stated that greater Francistown (DHMT) had 57 vehicles, 21 ambulances, 36 utility vehicles including; 28 on road vehicles and eight off road vehicles awaiting maintenance and boarding.

“All the 57 vehicles are used for the 40 facilities including the five 24 hours facilities, COVID-19 Isolation Centre as well as catering for the administrative needs of all facilities such as, accounts and supplies as well as laundry support services across the health district among others,” he said.

Furthermore, he said Greater Francistown DHMT was in a process of evaluating the vehicle allocation strategy for Francistown health facilities including Masego, Lapologang and Botswelelo clinics to ensure equitable access of the available transport resources.

The Francistown South legislator had asked the Minister of Health and Wellness to state when the ministry would consider upgrading one of the clinics in the Francistown South Constituency to a 24-hour facility.

MP Mmolotsi also wanted to know the number of doctors at the Francistown District Health Management Team (DHMT) against the establishment register; and the number of nurses in the Francistown South clinics against the establishment register. BOPA