07 Aug 2024

The Ministry of Health is currently revising its human resource plan to align with the primary healthcare revitalisation initiative.

Assistant Minister of Health, Honourable Sethomo Lelatisitswe said this in Parliament  on Tuesday.

Honourable  Lelatisitswe emphasised that the revision aimsed to establish solid primary care structures at the local level, thereby reducing the need for individuals to travel long distances for medical assistance.

“We are committed to ensuring that healthcare is accessible to all our citizens,” he stated.

Assistant Minister Lelatisitswe acknowledged the lack of nurses and doctors in various facilities, including Palapye Primary Hospital.

To mitigate the issue in the short term, he said the ministry had initiated a nationwide distribution of medical officers who are set to complete their internships in the 2024/25 financial year to bolster the healthcare workforce and improve service delivery across the country.

Moreover, he said the ministry had employed temporary medical officers and nurses to augment the shortage including at Palapye Primary Hospital.

Honourable Lelatisitswe said ministry continued to engage with other relevant stakeholders to explore the possibilities of increasing its medical and nursing cadres at various levels of specialisation.

Additionally, he said the ministry was also pursuing discussions on the improvement of conditions of service for healthcare workers in a bid to attract and retain personnel.

Concerning long queues, he said they were experiencing delays in service provision due to extreme shortage of staff nationally, including the Palapye district.

He said they had placed doctors in all Palapye catchment areas except in Maokatumo where they provided outreach services through their medical team.

Also, he said two doctors had been strategically placed at local clinics in Palapye as a way of decongesting the hospital.

The assistant minister told Parliament that Palapye Primary Hospital had a fully functional ultrasound machine with two radiographers and one of them was qualified to operate ultrasound.

“I am aware that currently one radiographer is on leave until end of September. In the interim, Sekgoma Memorial Hospital is supporting Palapye with a radiographer during the day,” he said.

To further ease congestion and improve on waiting period, Mr Lelatisitswe said some patients were booked at Sekgoma given that Botswana had a limited number of radiography officers and radiographers as most of such officers were expatriates.

The assistant minister acknowledged that hospitals often had hygiene challenges that required fumigation owing to the current state of the Palapye Primary Hospital.

Mr Lelatisitswe said fumigation was done every six months with the last having been done in February this year.

He said the last inspection done in May did not show any infestation.

However, he said another round of fumigation would be undertaken at the end of this month.

To address the problem, he said construction of a new 73-bed hospital was at design stage.

Palapye MP, Mr Onneetse Ramogapi had asked the minister if he was aware of the infestation at Palapye Primary Hospital due to poor hygiene.

Mr Ramogapi had also asked the minister how the ministry planned to address shortage of doctors and how it intended to provide quality service without long queues.

The MP asked the minister if he was aware of the unavailability of an ultrasound scan and the technical operator and how many people were capacitated to operate such machines. ENDS