Africa-Press – Botswana. Member of Parliament for Mochudi West, Mr Mmusi Kgafela says citizen-owned companies ought to take advantage of the newly enacted Economic Inclusion law and be at the fore in the supply of drugs to health facilities in Botswana.
Mr Kgafela said this on January, during a visit to the Deborah Retief Memorial Hospital in Mochudi, where he also demanded an inventory of Batswana already participating in the supply of drugs, owing to the challenges of shortage and or availability of drugs that health facilities were currently faced with.
“Procurement by Batswana companies should be encouraged in all health facilities and therefore we need to have a look at the inventory of those that are currently supplying the facilities to establish the number of citizens among them,” Mr Kgafela said.
The Economic Inclusion law was recently introduced to deliberately give citizens more opportunities as well as strengthen their right to participate in the country’s economy, both at public and private sector levels.
During the visit, acting District Health Management Team (DHMT) head, Dr Thabang Pitsonyane told MP Kgafela that vital drug availability stood at 48 per cent.
Dr Pitsonyane also told the MP that the Central Medical Stores (CMS), as the main suppliers, were unable to supply; hence the district was currently sourcing drugs from private companies.
Also, she said health facilities were currently dispensing vital drugs such as ARVs on weekly basis as a way of addressing demand and shortage.
On other issues, Dr Pitsonyane told the MP of their need for transport within the hospital to cover its catchment areas.
“Other facilities within the district are also experiencing shortage of transport to ferry patients,” she added.
She further told MP Kgafela that the hospital was experiencing shortage of incinerators for clinical waste management and as such, private incinerators were currently outsourced.
“We have also run out of testing agents in the laboratories,” she told the MP.
On one hand, Dr Pitsonyane indicated that Kgatleng District had one district hospital, 27 health facilities divided into nine clusters which comprised clinics and health posts, adding three resident doctors were currently rotating in the nine clusters.
Meanwhile, MP Kgafela’s visit was meant to appreciate the challenges in health facilities within the district, post COVID-19 recovery.
The area MP also wanted to establish issues pertaining to drug unavailability and whether the problem emanated from delayed procurement or shortage of funds by the CMS.
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