04 Apr 2022

 There are no doctors specifically allocated to Area W Clinic though it is a 24-hour facility providing maternity and outpatient services. Responding to a question in Parliament recently, health and wellness assistant minister, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe said, however, the facility was covered by a minimum of one doctor per shift through a schedule. He added that Gaborone West Clinic also provided 24-hour maternity services while OPD services were provided eight hours per day from 7:30am to 4:30pm.

“Due to the shortage of doctors in the Greater Gaborone region, Gaborone West Clinic is not able to have a doctor daily, thus it is covered by one doctor at least three times a week. However, Gaborone West catchment area is also serviced by Julia Molefhe Clinic which is about 2.2km away with a 24-hour doctor’s coverage,” Mr Lelatisitswe said. He said at Area W Clinic, the doctor to patient ratio based on the actual workload as per the 2021 statistics was one doctor per 37 patients. “However, with the ratio based on the population of Area W is one doctor per 937 patients. This ratio is in keeping with the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard of at least one doctor per 1000 population. There are days where there is more than one doctor per shift,” he said.

Further he said there were other facilities servicing the same population within Francistown City, where patients could access health services. “The number of doctors at Area W Clinic, therefore, satisfies the acceptable doctor to patient ratio to deliver medical services to patients with competence,” he said. At Gaborone West Clinic, he said the number of doctors did not meet the doctor to patient ratio because there was no doctor available daily.

“However, Gaborone West residents are also able to access health services at Julia Molefhe Clinic as well as other public health facilities in Gaborone.” He indicated that the ministry, however, continued to rationalise doctors across districts and facilities in order to mitigate the situation, thus strengthening the referral system and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for transportation of emergencies. He also told MPs that the ministry was in consultations with that of tertiary education, research, science and technology to facilitate training of more doctors during the pre-service training. Additionally, he said they were working on improving the conditions of doctors to facilitate attraction and retention. Gaborone Bonnington South MP, Mr Christian Greeff, had requested the minister to state the number of doctors at Area W Clinic in Francistown and Gaborone West Clinic respectively. He also wanted to know if the numbers satisfied the acceptable doctor to patient ratio to deliver medical services with competence.ENDS