27 Feb 2025

Ministry of Health acknowledges that Letsholathebe II Memorial Hospital is facing challenges of staff shortages, medicine shortage as well as inadequate facilities, Assistant Minister of Health, Mr Lawrence Ookeditse said.
He said all facilities order medicine from Central Medical Stores, and were also allocated a micro-procurement vote, which he said catered for emergency procurements specific to that health facility.
He said countrywide, shortage of medical specialists and medical officers in the public sector was a result of high attrition rate, in addition to the already low numbers of local specialists.
Though such was the case, government he said ensured that district hospitals have at least one medical specialist from the five basic specialities, noting that Letsholathebe memorial offered four specialities.
He further said the hospital also offered five sub-specialities, bringing the total number of specialists to 17, which he said the number of both specialists and doctors was in line to increase as more doctors were trained and become available.
He further acknowledged that the growing population of Maun called for a second 24-hour service clinic in order to alleviate pressure on Maun Clinic and Letsholathebe hospital, unfortunately, the ministry was under budgetary constraints, and could not undertake the project at the moment.
Mr Ookeditse also said the ministry had no plans to upgrade Letsholathebe hospital.
He was responding to MP for Maun East Goretetse Kekgonegile who asked the minister if he was aware of the numerous challenges of inadequate services to patients at Letsholathebe hospital (North West District).
Furthermore he asked the minister to state how they would address challenges of shortage of staff, doctors and specialists-patient ratio, shortages of medicine as well as inadequate facilities.
Additionally he asked if there were any plans to establish a 24-hour clinic in Maun East to match the rising population of Maun,. He asked if there were plans to upgrade Letsholathebe hospital into a fully-fledged specialised hospital. ENDS