07 Dec 2023

The upgrading of Palapye Primary Hospital into a 73-beds Primary Hospital is planned for implementation in the Transitional National Development Plan. 

Assistant Minister of Health, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe told Parliament that the plot had already been secured and lease agreement was available. Answering questions asked by Palapye MP, Mr Onneetse Ramogapi, he said the project would be implemented through the Development Manager (DM) model and it has been awarded to K-Hill Consortium for the design and build. 

He said the contracts were signed October 24 this year including the development manager who would construct hospital. The project  work would be done in phases and that Phase 1 work, which consists of Stage one being Pre-Feasibility and Stage two being Feasibility studies. 

Mr Lelatisitswe said the development manager conducted site visit on the November 16, 2023 with District Health Management Team (DHMT), and that after collecting necessary data for the two stages, the specific timelines for construction of the hospital would be determined. 

Notwithstanding this, he said the actual construction was expected to start in the next year after completion the designs. 

He acknowledged that there was shortage of manpower in the district across different cadres and that as a way of improving service delivery, the Ministry of Health in 2022 took a decision to send a significant number of officers for further studies. 

This, he said, resulted in shortage of staff across health facilities. 

Additionally, he said, there had been a significant number of resignations of officers from public service especially nurses going for greener pastures in other countries. “Ministry of Health is also facing a challenge of transfers and retirements of officers without being replaced,” he said. 

He also apprised Parliament that the availability for chronic disease medicines comprised Anti-Hypertensive at 89 per cent, Diabetics Medications 86 per cent, Mental Health Medications 78 per cent, Antiretroviral (ARV’s- 100 per cent ), Analgesics 100 per cent and Asthmatic Medications 100 per cent. 

The above medicines, he said, were received with an acceptable shelve life of six months and above and that ordering of drugs was done fort-nightly for the stock to last at least two months. 

He said the dispensing and distribution of drugs was done on the basis of First in First out (FIFO) for items with the same expiry date as well as the First to Expire, First out (FEFO) where items have different expiry dates. 

He said whenever the district received short dated items from CMS, proper documentation was done and items are returned to CMS within seven days of receipt. 

He further told Parliament that Palapye District was one of the rapidly growing districts in Botswana as per 2001, 2011 and 2022 census reports, which he said had resulted in an increased number of consultations, hence long queues. 

In an effort to mitigate the long queues, he said, the hospital used queue marshals to manage the queues and direct clients accordingly. “There is also block booking of patients to manage congestion caused by influx of patients. 

The Ministry through the DHMT will explore having admissions of patients from the peripheral facilities to be done by local doctors so that patients could be sent directly to the ward for continuity of care. 

This will avoid patients being sent to accident and emergency department for admissions,” he said. 

Mr Lelatisitswe said the ministry acknowledged that Palapye Hospital was in need of major maintenance and as such, the DHMT through Facilities Management was currently facilitating a tender for major maintenance of the hospital. 

“This tender will include refurbishment of the maternity wing. The maintenance is envisaged to commence in April 2024,” he said. 

In the interim, Mr Lelatisitswe said, the DHMT continued with minor works which includes painting of the hospital, currently at 85 per cent completion, construction of clinical waste storage bay which is complete and in use, construction of unserviceable items holding yard currently at more than 80 per cent completion while grounds and landscaping were regularly maintained. 

Mr Ramogapi had asked the Minister of Health to appraise Parliament on the Palapye Hospital in particular, to state the envisaged date to start the hospital expansion. He also wanted to know about shortage of nurses, doctors, pharmacists, dentists, eye specialists and other staff, stock level of tablets for chronic diseases medicine and expiry dates, and why Central Medical Stores distributed medicines when they were about to expire. ENDS