13 Mar 2014

Parliament has adopted Ministry of Health (MoH) budget request of over P5 billion for the financial year 2014/15.

Responding to comments from Members of Parliament earlier, the health minister, Dr John Seakgosing said the country did not have a legal environment that facilitated provision of condoms for prisoners.

He said prisoners were entitled to all HIV/AIDS prevention and care services throughout the country which ranged from heath education, peer counseling, treatment to psychosocial support by nurses and social workers.

Dr Seakgosing said the allowance for Community Home Based Care was entirely meant for transport and not a living allowance. He further said government policy stipulated that ARV drugs were not meant for non-citizens, but were provided to HIV positive citizens.

“This is due to sustainability and cost-effectiveness of the treatment. ARV treatment is a lifelong treatment and cannot be stopped once started,” he said.

He said foreign nationals could access the drugs at a cost from private facilities. The ministry, he said, had also made special dispensation of a three-months supply of ARV drugs to patients living or working at the deltas instead of the normal one month supply.

Dr Seakgosing said he was aware of serious shortage of ambulances in most health facilities, but noted that some had been taken for repair and that the ministry had taken an initiative to contract private motor dealerships to maintain the vehicles. Replacement of boarded vehicles was also ongoing, he stated.

He noted 85 vehicles would be replaced during 2014/15 financial year as an effort to augment the current shortage and improve service delivery.

The health minister said due to budgetary constraints, the Selebi Phikwe Hospital construction could not be included for takeoff in the 2014/16 financial year, but noted that he was aware that the hospital was included in the current development plan.

He said refurbishment of old facilities has been delayed due to some technical issues, but noted that they were in plan. The ministry also planned to staff health posts with two or more nurses for continuous health care service in the facilities, he said.

Minister Seakgosing said all District Health Management Teams had trained staff for customer care service who should in turn improve handling customers.

He said the porter-camps in place for HIV patients were meant to reduce the waiting time for patients and not for purposes of stigma, but noted that the ministry appreciates the concerns raised by legislators on the stigma issue. Ends