26 Feb 2014

The Ministry of Health has requested government to allow it to repair its fleet in order to address the challenge of shortage of vehicles.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Monwane in the Kweneng District on Tuesday, February 25, the Minister of Health, Dr John Seakgosing, said the ministry’s service delivery was crippled by the long time vehicles spent at the Central Transport Organisation (CTO) for repair.

“As a ministry that drives a critical component such as health care it is not appropriate for our vehicles to be confined for a long period awaiting repairs,” he said, adding that, “it’s our hope that the new arrangement will ensure speedy repairs and ultimately improve service delivery.”

Dr  Seakgosing said the last time he checked, there were 443 vehicles that belonged to his ministry at CTO, 188 of them ambulances, something that was detrimental to the provision of health care.

Recently, the Ministry of Health selected 177 vehicles from the CTO old fleet and repaired them for use by clinics and hospitals. One hundred and fourty-seven of the vehicles were repaired and the ministry intended to ask for more to repair.

“We chose the models that have been tried and tested when it comes to the terrain of our county, and it is our hope that this move will address the challenges of clinics staying longer without vehicles,” he said.

Dr Seakgosing said his ministry also wanted to repair its own buildings because it took long for the Department of Building and Engineering Services to do maintenance work.

He also said government intended to take services as close to the people as possible. As a result, 543 of the 700 health centres nationwide provide ARVs. He said the project of upgrading clinics would come with staff houses.

The government decided that all its buildings, including houses for civil servants, must be electrified. The minister said wages for Ipelegeng would increase soon. However, he did not state the figure. ENDS