06 Feb 2014

Outreach health services provided to remote area residents have declined due to severe transport constraints but have not collapsed, the Assistant Minister of Health, Dr Gloria Somolekae has said.

Answering a parliamentary question from Boteti North MP on February 4, Dr Somolekae said for the last three quarters, the number of mobile visits conducted nationally stood at 66 per cent for the first quarter, 52.3 per cent in the second quarter and 46.5 per cent for the third quarter.

“Outreach services provide a comprehensive package of preventive health services as well as curative services,” she said. She said sexual reproductive health and family planning were part of this package. 

Dr Somolekae said her ministry recently procured 23 vehicles and distributed them throughout the country, saying she believed this would alleviate some transport challenges they had experienced while conducting outreach services.

She said they had outsourced repairs of their fleet to private garages around the country due to delays at Central Transport Organisation (CTO).

Dr Somolekae was responding to a question from the MP for Boteti North, Mr Slumber Tsogwane who had asked if the minister was aware that the outreach mobile health services provided to remote area residents has collapsed; if so, when would the service be restored, particularly in the area of reproductive health and family planning.  ENDS