07 Mar 2024

Ministry of Health has procured 78 vehicles during the current financial year, three of which have been allocated to the Greater Ghanzi District Health Management Team (DHMT) to help reach out to 650 mobile stops covered through a tough terrain.

Assistant Minister of Health, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe said additional staffing would be considered in the future once the situation improved.

Furthermore, he said his ministry was in the process of engaging farmer’s associations in the Ghanzi area for restructuring of mobile stop points to enhance efficiency.

He explained that the distribution of the outreach points in the farms was a challenge, adding that it took an average of one hour to move between the service points with extremes of three to four hours in some areas.

Mr Lelatisitswe acknowledged that some of the people residing in remote cattle posts and farms had not been visited in the past four years due to protracted challenges.

He said Ghanzi North constituency had close to 365 mobile stops and was equally affected by the resource constraints. 

“I must admit that since the advent of COVID-19, shortage of transport countrywide has affected service delivery, including coverage of mobile stop services in the Ghanzi District,” he said.

The MP for Ghanzi North, Mr John Thite had asked the minister if he was aware that his constituents, especially those residing in remote cattle posts and farms, had not been visited by mobile stop clinics for four years.

He also wanted to know if there had been any budgetary allocations for the programme in the past four years, and if the minister would consider, as a matter of urgency, the provision of additional staffing, vehicles and medical supplies to conduct the exercise. Ends