13 Aug 2025

Ministry of Health has resorted to adopting strategic steps, such as reprioritising to redirect funds where possible to allow provision of medical commodities.

Answering a question in Parliament, Minister Dr Stephen Modise therefore called for community involvement and participation on how they would equitably distribute health care services across the entire country.

 “I wish to reiterate once again my plea that we put our collective efforts towards finding a solution to this crisis of medicinal shortage,” he pleaded.

Addressing health care services challenges in Kgatleng East constituency, Dr Modise said the constituency’s drug availability was at 69.7 per cent while the Central Medical Stores (CMS) was at 55 per cent against a national target of 97 per cent.

He said shortage of drugs was attributed to low stock levels at CMS, mainly due to financial constraints.

Dr Modise further said Kgatleng East had a total number of nine health facilities, comprising of three clinics and six health posts.

He said there was one 24-hour facility at Oodi with maternity and staff complement of about 21 nurses, while other clinics had at least five to seven nurses and the health posts had at least two nurses each and two resident doctors based in Mathubudukwane and Oodi.

The minister noted that those health workers were part of the personnel transferred from the Ministry of Health as part of the relocation exercise.

He added that mobile stop visits in the area were conducted on monthly basis with a current coverage of 90 per cent.

He further said assessments were conducted regularly and feedback given to the community in different platforms such as kgotla meetings and facility health talks.

Through such adopted efforts, he said the community could expect to witness visual and measurable improvements in health services when more resources were availed and they would also be community outreach services availed.

Dr Modise was responding to the MP for Kgatleng East, Mr Mabuse Pule, who had asked the minister to provide a detailed timely update on specific measures taken to improve the quality and reliability of health care services in the constituency and further state the current availability of essential medications in clinics and health posts throughout the constituency. 

He also asked what the ministry had identified as key reasons behind recurring medicine shortages in clinics and health posts and if the constraints were currently being addressed.

Mr Pule further asked what specific interventions was the ministry implementing to improve access to health care in the constituency including staffing, equipment upgrade and mobile health services.

Moreover, he asked whether the ministry had conducted any recent needs assessments in the health facilities within Kgatleng East and if so, whether the findings would be shared with the community and local leadership. 

He also wanted to know when the people of the constituency could expect to see visible and measurable improvements in their access to medicine and health services and even how such progress would be monitored and communicated with the public. ENDS