Makgato, a healthy dose to ailing system

Mmegi Editor | Wednesday February 18, 2015 16:10

Her assurance came at a time when Princess Marina Hospital is in the news for all the wrong reasons. The hospital is facing serious shortage of staff and equipment, and patients are forced to sleep on the floor.

Some who are lucky to secure beds, hardly make it back to their homes alive. It is indeed a good thing to see a minister with the energy and enthusiasm to resolve health problems in the country. This is despite the fact that she has no background in the field of medicine.

Now, we implore the minister to improve working conditions for health workers, particularly doctors’ salaries. We have said it in the past that it is unwise for the Government to spend millions of pula training young Batswana doctors who relocate abroad upon completion of their studies. In the past, expatriate doctors were given better working conditions compared to their Batswana counterparts, and it is our hope that the minister will definitely address this discrepancy.

There is also the need to train and attract specialists, pharmacy technicians, to ease congestion and delays in our hospitals. So, it will not be a fruitful exercise to pack warehouses and dispensaries with drugs that are going to expire or simply disappear from shelves because they don’t reach their intended patients.

Another aspect that needs the minister’s urgent attention is to draft a legislation that will lead to the establishment of a Fund, which will assist patients who need specialised surgeries that are unavailable in the country. In the past we have had the public contribute funds to save the lives of their compatriots to undergo such surgeries abroad. The Government can create a Fund and save lives where the nation has not been able to make such contributions. Something similar to the American ‘Obamacare’.

Before passing away two years ago, former MP for Francistown West Tshelang Masisi tried to convince Government on the importance of having an Organ Bank. A patient who has suffered kidney-related illness, Masisi knew the pain and challenges of hunting for an organ donor.

The surgery that follows is also expensive and therefore unaffordable to many Batswana. We urge the minister to seriously look into this before the spark that she has dies, like it has happened with other ministers who came before her.