Africa-Press – Botswana. The twin problems of shortage of transport and dispensary staff remain a major challenge for Mahalapye District Health Management Team (DHMT), as it tries to deliver treatment and other health services to patients across the district, council chairperson Mr Bantlhasetse Merementsi said Monday.
He was speaking on the first day of the council’s full second session here.
Mr Merementsi said while there had been a shortage of drugs, the situation had now slightly improved [as shortage of medicines and medical supplies was unrelenting] , but now they had to contend with issues of shortage of dispensary staff and transport. “[lack of] access is now compounded by non-dispensing of medication by nurses,” he said adding that to mitigate the problem, the DHMT had clustered its facilities so one pharmacy technician could service more than one location.
“This is not enough as some clients end up getting treatment late,” he said. Worsening the situation, was lack of transport, he said. The chairman said notwithstanding numerous challenges the DHMT celebrated recognition of Mahalapye District Hospital as a Centre of Excellence for Orthopaedic service.
He said Ministry of Health was now partnering with private doctors through a Public- Private partnership (PPP) and Mahalapye Primary Hospital was one of the facilities operating through the arrangement.
This allowed for orthopaedic patients from the region and outside to be treated by private practitioners at the the hospital for a fraction of what they would normally pay at a private clinic, he said.
“This has not only saved the ministry costs, but it has also reduced backlog for orthopaedic patients,” he said.
Mr Merementsi said the hospital continued to improve its specialists’ services and had a specialist for commonly needed services except for Gynaecology.
He added that owing to those improvements, patients no longer had to wait for too long and referrals to other hospitals for specialist services had reduced.
Meanwhile the DHMT would ensure the district had more specialist among them gynaecologists, he said.
Giving an update on the education sector, Mr Merementsi said there was a growing number of learners who left secondary school due to pregnancy and other reasons.
“There were 86 drop-outs during term two as compared to 61 in the first term one,” he said, adding the children left due to illness, pregnancy or simply deserted school.
He urged councilors to join hands with parents, village leadership, teachers and other stakeholders to ensure the children completed their studies.
On crime, Mr Merementsi said the number of defilement cases was rising in their distric, as. eight had already been registered this year.
In addition, there was an escalating number of rape cases involving children under the age of 18 years with the district registering 11 cases for the month of August alone.
He asked councillors to educate communities against social ills, and encourage people to make crime prevention personal responsibility. On the agriculture front, he said processing of payments for various ISPAAD components for the 2022/23 ploughing and planting season were ongoing.
While generally livestock condition and grazing were currently fair, and there was no reported drought-related mortality, the deteriorating rangeland was of concern.
He therefore advised farmers to dip, deworm, vaccinate and supplement with mineral licks in order to maintain current livestock condition.
Touching on utilities the council chairman said in line with government’s affirmative action, Botswana Power Corporation had reduced household connection fee for low-income earners to P2, 500. from P5000 for those who earned P2, 400.00 and below.
However, the the corporation had maintained the P5, 000.00 fee for middle to high-income households.
Mr Merementsi said the water supply situation in the district ranged from good in all Mahalapye service centres to fair, while the waste water scheme was still functioning properly with allowance for more customers.
With regard to the district council transition, he said the authority’s logo, corporate colours, vision and mission statement were approved during the Special Full Council meeting that was held on August 04 2023, adding that that signified a significant step in the rebranding process as the elements formed the core of the Council’s new identity.
Mr Merementsi reiterated the President’s mindset change message and asked everyone to apply it in their lives, to improve themselves, and others.
People, he said, must be industrious, global in their thinking, and should strive to live better lives. He urged every person in a position of leadership to propagate the Reset message to the best of their abilities.
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