19 Jul 2023

The Ministry of Health anticipates to have cleared the majority of the backlog of operations, that accumulated during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, by the end of the current financial year.

Assistant Minister of Health, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe revealed this when answering a question in Parliament from Kanye North MP, Mr Thapelo Letsholo.

The other backlog of operations, Mr Lelatisitswe said, were anticipated to be reduced by at least 75 per cent by the second quarter of the 2024/2025 financial year.

He said the ministry still had challenges of specialised human resource in certain special areas due to inability to retain and attract them because of multifaceted reasons including those of conditions of service.

“Majority of these specialists are available in the local private sector hence the ministry’s initiative to utilise their services within government health facilities. This initiative, when fully implemented, will enable the ministry to provide services in a more sustainable manner,” he said.

He said the ministry also continued to engage partners who assisted with provision of services whilst also building capacity. In the medium-term, Mr Lelatisitswe said, the ministry was investing in team training of specialised professionals whilst in the long-term, it was also investing in revitalising primary health care, inclusive of a deliberate paradigm shift towards preventative medicine.

With regard to availability of financial resources, the assistant minister said the ministry had prioritised delivery of health services in a sustainable way which was inclusive of outsourcing of special services that the ministry was unable to provide.

As it stood, he said, the current budget for outsourced medical services was not enough to cater for the backlog and the current needs, adding that the budget allocated for medical equipment was never enough to meet the needs of providing the service.

As such, he said the ministry would continue to implement innovative ways to reduce the cost of care and to find alternative means to fund the process of backlog reduction which included, amongst others, working with stakeholders.

Even though there were still shortages in some areas, Mr Lelatisitswe said the situation of medicines and medical supplies had improved from the time of immediate post COVID-19.

He assured Parliament that the ministry continued to work hard to ensure continuity of services through provision of alternative medicines that would serve the same purpose, and that the ministry  had already streamlined processes on acquiring medicines.

However, he said it was difficult to commit to a time frame ‘as by definition backlog is something that as you clear, new cases continue.’

“I wish to confirm that it is within my ministry’s strategy to continue to refer patients to private health facilities for services that are not available in government. It is however not sustainable to utilise the private health facilities to clear the backlog even for services that are available in government,” he added.

Between January to June 2023, Mr Lelatisitswe said 5 216 patients were referred to local private health facilities.

To enable facilities to address backlog surgeries, he said the ministry was currently implementing some initiatives which were more sustainable and cost effective and would see majority of patients operated within government health facilities through utilising local private specialist as well as redistributing resources across district and primary hospitals.

Mr Letsholo had asked Mr Lelatisitswe to appraise Parliament on the backlog of operations that accumulated during COVID-19 and further explain the availability of resources, including human, financial, pharmaceutical and consumables to clear the backlog.

The Kanye North MP also wanted to know when the ministry anticipated to have cleared the backlog and whether it was within the ministry’s strategy to refer some of the cases to private facilities and how many had been so referred to date. Ends