Africa-Press – Botswana. Boteti District is faced with a serious shortage of transport, with the health sector being the most hard hit.
This emerged in a meeting that was held by Boteti West MP, Mr Sam Digwa with Mmadikola leadership and public officers yesterday. Various speakers raised concerns about the dire situation in most of the health facilities in the Boteti district, where in some instances, only one ambulance would be available to service more than one villages.
Among the most negatively impacted in this situation, were said to be dialysis patients because they accessed services in Francistown, with some having to be attended to by a specialist three times a week. Dialysis is a medical procedure that filters and cleans the blood of patients whose kidneys are not functioning properly.
Acting deputy council secretary for primary health care, Ms Tshegofatso Tlotlang said such circumstances were exacerbated by serious shortage of nephrologists, that is medical doctors specialising in kidney care, who also manages dialysis treatments in the country. Therefore, she said with these only few specialists, it would take time to have dialysis units or services in various parts of the country, including Boteti.
Ms Tlotlang highlighted that only a few were currently stationed in the northern and southern part of the country, while patients from Boteti fell within the northern jurisdiction, hence would continue to access services at Nyangwgwe Referral Hospital in Francistown. It was also revealed that as an intervention, the district provided some of the dialysis patients with a monthly P700 rental, P789 transport fare and P600 food basket so that they could stay and access dialysis services nearer.
These meetings were also extended to Xere and Rakops, where public officers decried shortage of accommodation for staff, delayed progression and overstay in one area among others. Area MP, Mr Digwa emphasised the importance of employee welfare for better performance and results in government offices.
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