Africa-Press – Eswatini. Since January 2021, the crossover has been for me a time for sober personal reflection.
Having voluntarily discharged myself from a private hospital, due to the lack of proper medical care received, it was only thanks to the foresight of my Liswati partner that, in the very early hours of the morning on January 7, 2021, I vaguely recall arriving at The Luke Commission (TLC) Miracle Campus, to be met by a smiling nurse but still wondering where my next breath would come from.
Yet another victim of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic which took the lives of the late prime minister and two cabinet ministers, though all three had been transported across the border to South Africa for ‘specialist medical treatment’. I was feeling very exposed and very vulnerable.
Nineteen days were spent in the Intensive Care Unit as a VIP (Very Important Patient) in the compassionate and caring hands of the fantastic team at TLC, where both my lungs were continuously flooded with life giving oxygen 24/7.
I was very aware that it was a lottery as to who would live and who would die. Sadly, for the elderly gentleman in the bed next to me, who was continually struggling for air and for whom, despite all the quality healthcare received, it was his time.
I have absolutely no doubt that, without the divine intervention of the TLC, the COVID-19 mortality rate would have been much higher in the kingdom and I would not be at my laptop penning my letter to the editor of the Eswatini Observer.
At crossover this year, I will also take the time to reflect on my two personal highlights of 2023. Without doubt, it has to be the too long delayed official opening of TLC by His Majesty King Mswati III held on June 16, 2023.
A joyous day for all, when His Majesty gave his blessing to all the “good work” being done by TLC for the isolated and underserved Emaswati, making specific reference in his speech to the first ever medical quality oxygen production plant opened in the kingdom in 2021
And the feedback presentation I attended at TLC Miracle Campus third quarter 2023, after the official visit by Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly, the World Bank Country Director for Eswatini in August 2023, when she said (and I quote directly from the Powerpoint presentation) – “I’m so glad to have finally visited the Miracle Campus.
This is the quintessence of excellence, innovation and impact in health services.
How can we scale this healthcare delivery model and digital system in the kingdom and beyond?”
A very different message to that now being promulgated by the former minister of health in last week’s article in the Eswatini Observer when seeking, unconvincingly in my opinion, to defend the unfulfilled conditions for TLC’s lack of access to World Bank loans.
With never any public acknowledgement, nor any meaningful funding support forthcoming from the ministry of health, of the significant contribution made by TLC to quality healthcare in the kingdom.
A position reinforced by the former minister of health who, when delivering her speech at the official opening by His Majesty, made no reference to TLC by name nor the tangible benefits of a ready accessible supply of medical quality oxygen to critically ill patients.
I therefore find it incredibly disrespectful to His Majesty that, almost immediately after the official opening and two years since the full commissioning of the oxygen production plant, certification was again back on the former minister of health’s agenda.
Even though the oxygen plant was built to the required standard of the World Health Organisation. And even though the former prime minister Cleopas Dlamini had also made it very clear that all medical quality oxygen was to be supplied in-country and not through commercial profit driven suppliers with their headquarters in Europe.
The evidence is clear for all to see that, the success and high visibility of TLC was being viewed with more than a degree of envy. An unwelcome irritant.
The ministry of health’s administration almost seeming to go out of its way to deny the NGO ready access to the international donor fund or to a percentage of the annual health budget.
Its response to last week’s emotional interview by one of the directors of TLC on ‘People and Places’ aired on Channel YemaSwati was telling for me and confirms that the former administration still refuses to let go, even though no longer in office.
Now suggesting through your newspaper that “there is no way anybody could be against the certification, as that was the requirement from the beginning” and adding the need for the ministry of commerce, industry and trade to still actively pursue the certification issue.
Agreed, but only if we are talking about a level playing field for all suppliers of medical oxygen operating in the kingdom.
Sometimes, there is the need for acceptance through a dignified silence as it is becoming increasingly apparent to all that there is perhaps a hidden agenda.
The professional reputation of the former ministry of health’s administration has already been permanently tarnished by the ongoing Central Medical Stores (CMS) financial scandal with TLC reporting that it only received 16 per cent of the commodities requisitioned from CMS in 2021-23.
Responding to the seemingly misleading comments made, regarding allocations of in-kind support for the COVID -19 pandemic from international partners, TLC’s press statement would seem to confirm that the NGO already had a direct relationship with PEPFAR and the Kirsh Foundation but, in-kind donations, though received with gratitude do not pay staff salaries, resulting in 160 valued employees having to be laid off just before the Christmas break.
The TLC press statement goes on to suggest that TLC was also “glaringly omitted from international partners’ proposals such as Global Fund and World Bank”.
Which, if proven to be factually correct, would seem to support TLC’s view that “the former minister’s comments exposed the [obvious] bias of the former ministry of health’s administration against TLC”. On the evidence available to date, unfortunately I have to agree.
If TLC is to continue operating, for the benefit of all Emaswati, it is respectfully suggested that the new minister of health must now provide TLC not only with ready access to the international donor pool but, as a matter of the highest priority, also to a percentage of the annual budget of E2.76 billion allocated to the health sector for the current financial year 2023/2024.
The modest amount of emergency relief funding requested by TLC of E10 million per calendar month “to return to 24/7/365 care for VIPs” is less than five per cent of the total annual health budget.
So, my humble and heartfelt plea to the new minister of health is not to make the same mistakes as the former ministry of health’s administration, but to sign the memorandum of agreement with TLC soonest and to continue on the journey that he and his principal secretary have already begun with such commitment and energy, to improve the current access to high quality health care for all ordinary Emaswati.
Not by the creation of yet another semi-autonomous parastatal/subvention model but a public-private partnership model, designed to produce cost-effective patient-centred services at the lowest possible cost.
Which can only be achieved by a more collaborative partnership approach, based on a mutual trust and transparency with other like-minded stakeholders.
All motivated by the same shared goal of delivering His Majesty’s desire for a sustainable quality of healthcare for every underserved and isolated liSwati, which clearly did not happen under the administration of the former ministry of health – judging by the former ministry of health’s totally inadequate response to the financial challenges now being faced by the caring and compassionate TLC.
Source: OBSERVER
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