Africa-Press – Botswana. Residents of Mpaphadzi ward in the Serowe South constituency have indicated that they are experiencing a serious shortage of health personnel, especially doctors, nurses as well as transport. Commenting during a kgotla meeting that the area MP, Mr Leepetswe Lesedi addressed last week, the residents said the few doctors at Sekgoma Memorial Hospital were not able to service the district well as the hospital was often had long queues.
They complained about shortage of drugs in health facilities around the constituency, noting that the medication shortage had been a major concern because people’s lives were at risk.
They urged health authorities to communicate with community leaders on time whenever there was a challenge for them to update the public. They said sometimes patients come back home without having seen the doctor because of the long queues.
The residents also said the health authorities should ensure that medication was distributed countrywide because patients suffer as some could not afford to buy medication in pharmacies.
They complained about poor customer service in hospitals, saying nurses and caregivers should confirm with other clinics if they have medication before sending patients to check at the different health facilities.
Mr Nicolas Besele said at the Emergency Department at Sekgoma Hospital, nurses attend patients at their own time even though they would have seen that the patient is in a serious condition.
He said they sometimes spend the whole night waiting to be assisted.
Ms Gaeboloke Kebadireng complained that the pharmacist was always absent and they are referred to other health facilities, which cost them.
Mr Abednico Baitsile requested that the Old Sekgoma Hospital should operates 24 hours as it was intended to. The health facility has no ARVs and other drugs.
Ms Japelo Bosena said some doctors used to change their medications such as sugar diabetes pills without informing them.
Responding to some comments, Ms Tebogo Moseki from the DHMT at Old Sekgoma Hospital said they have made a request to the relevant authorities to address the situation and they were expecting a positive feedback.
Ms Moseki said the health care system was constrained by shortage of staff especially doctors, limited work space, transport and maintenance of health facilities, saying it has been the plan of the ministry to have resident doctors in all 24-hour clinics.
However, due to shortage of doctors, it was not possible to allocate doctors to all of these facilities. She warned the health workers who still refer some patients to other health facilities if they do not have specific medicines in their clinics to enquire before sending them to look for medication.
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