{"id":3971,"date":"2021-10-04T11:03:10","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T11:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo"},"modified":"2021-10-04T11:45:01","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T11:45:01","slug":"qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo","title":{"rendered":"QMMH nurses\u2019 future in limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Lesotho<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>The nursing staff at the Queen \u2019Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) is yet to receive an official notice from government regarding their continued engagement at the facility following termination of the T\u0161epong Consortium contract in the public-private partnership (PPP) that operated the hospital.<\/p>\n

The PPP project collapsed in its 13th year of an 18-year contract, with the Lesotho government terminating following a long drawn-out dispute in which T\u0161epong was being accused of non-compliance. The consortium, on the other hand, accused government of missing payments for services rendered.<\/p>\n

The face-off resulted in a nurses\u2019 strike that resulted in 265 of them being dismissed and, with termination of the T\u0161epong consortium effective on August 31, the fate of nurses remains unclear following government\u2019s announcement of a new management team this week.<\/p>\n

Netcare, the South African company that has been running hospital\u2019s operations, handed over operations at QMMH and its four filter clinics in Maseru to the government.<\/p>\n

The T\u0161epong consortium is the principal contractor in the PPP agreement and Netcare has been sub-contracted to manage T\u0161epong, providing all clinical services required to operate the hospital and primary care clinical services on behalf of the consortium.<\/p>\n

Dr Chale Moji is now the new Managing Director of the hospital. During the official handover in Maseru this week, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Khothatso T\u0161ooana, was vague on whether government will absorb the soon-to-be-out-of-work nurses into the new arrangement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government will see what it can do with the workers and will update them on the progress on Friday (today). We are currently in the middle of the transition process with T\u0161epong,\u201d T\u0161ooana said.<\/p>\n

He encouraged the nurses to continue with their duties while the health ministry resolves the issue of their employment. \u201cWe are working on issues concerning your jobs.<\/p>\n

We will update you as soon as the task has been completed. However, in the meantime, continue with your respective tasks and stay assured that we will do what is right by you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In an interview with this paper a fortnight ago, the health minister, Semano Sekatle, also said government was yet to decide what will happen to the workers.<\/p>\n

He did not mince words, however, in telling this reporter that the nurses were not left to be absorbed into government\u2019s new operational arrangement in the hospital, noting also that T\u0161epong was obligated to pay them until August 31 and making formal and legal departure with its staff from the facility.<\/p>\n

Sekatle said the government is not obliged to secure jobs for the T\u0161epong staff, but that as a responsible government they can only provide jobs if opportunities are available.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is yet to decide on a way forward regarding T\u0161epong staff. We are a responsible government and ensuring job opportunities for Basotho is our priority. We will do what is right and doable, but we do not promise to absorb the staff,\u201d Sekatle said.<\/p>\n

Speaking on behalf of T\u0161epong consortium at the handing over ceremony, Dr Lehlohonolo Mosotho lamented the premature ending of the contract, blaming Netcare for this eventuality.<\/p>\n

He said the appointment of Netcare to manage the hospital did not benefit them or the government much but resulted in mismanagement of funds and dismissal of nurses \u2013 among a litany of misdeeds the company is accused of.<\/p>\n

Dr Mosotho continued further that once the transition process is complete, they will monitor developments and ensure job security for all of the T\u0161epong employees.<\/p>\n

Health Director General, \u2019Nyane Letsie, said QMMH will continue to operate as a national referral hospital and that its two clinics of Likotsi and Ha Mabote, which had been operated by T\u0161epong, will now be serviced with rest of the other district clinics.<\/p>\n

In a statement following these developments, Netcare claimed that the decision to terminate the partnership and commence the handover of the facilities and operations follows repeated failure by government to settle arrears payments for services rendered.<\/p>\n

Netcare noted that despite the government being four months in arrears, it has been persistent in demanding that Netcare continues providing its services until August 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn its capacity as a shareholder of T\u0161epong, and as the major provider of services to T\u0161epong, Netcare has continued to act in good faith and provided ample written notice to T\u0161epong and Government of Lesotho (GOL), as well as follow-up reminders that GoL is substantially in default of its payment obligations under the PPP agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has repeatedly reiterated that it has no intention of making these scheduled, contractual payments at this stage, and will only consider making payment after the PPP termination date of 31 August, 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn light of these circumstances, Netcare is no longer prepared to fund ongoing operations on behalf of PPP.<\/p>\n

Netcare has provided financial support on numerous occasions over recent years to enable continued operations at the hospital and primary care clinics when government of Lesotho failed to make timely payment of services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe refusal by the GoL to pay the outstanding fees clearly places an unreasonable expectation on suppliers to continue providing full services at a substantial level of commercial risk to their business,\u201d writes Netcare.<\/p>\n

Netcare, however, noted that despite not being paid, they will continue to treat all patients during the transitional period until it is deemed clinically appropriate and safe to discharge them.<\/p>\n

The T\u0161epong consortium was the principal contractor in the PPP agreement and Netcare has been sub contracted to manage the QMMH, providing all clinical services required to operate the hospital and the primary care clinical services on behalf of the consortium.<\/p>\n

The T\u0161epong consortium comprises Netcare, which holds a 40 percent interest, while the remaining 60 percent shareholding is held by South Africa-based Afinnai Health (Pty) Ltd (20 percent), Lesotho Based Exel Health Services (Pty) Ltd (20 percent), D10 investments (Pty) Ltd (10 percent), also Lesotho based, and women Investment company (Pty) Ltd (10 percent), which is also Lesotho based.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The nursing staff at the Queen \u2019Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) is yet to receive an official notice from government regarding their continued engagement at the facility following termination of the T\u0161epong Consortium contract in the public-private partnership (PPP) that operated the hospital. The PPP project collapsed in its 13th year of an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245,739,574],"class_list":["post-3971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-limbo","tag-qmmh"],"yoast_head":"\nQMMH nurses\u2019 future in limbo - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The nursing staff at the Queen \u2019Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) is yet to receive an official notice from government r ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"QMMH nurses\u2019 future in limbo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The nursing staff at the Queen \u2019Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) is yet to receive an official notice from government r ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-04T11:03:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-04T11:45:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-615ae91ac1287.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1457\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"805\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"QMMH nurses\u2019 future in limbo\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-04T11:03:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-04T11:45:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo\"},\"wordCount\":1002,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-615ae91ac1287.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"limbo\",\"QMMH\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/qmmh-nurses-future-in-limbo\",\"name\":\"QMMH nurses\u2019 future in limbo - 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