BLLAHWU decries relocation of primary healthcare

Baboki Kayawe | Thursday March 26, 2015 17:54

 

“DHMTs heads are powerless and thus mere messengers conveying messages to headquarters,” he said. 

Motshegwa said the state of clinics left a lot to be desired. He termed the movement from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development the “genesis of problems for the local healthcare sector”.

In some instances, he added, minor issues such as locks and toilet leakages were not attended because “only one company has been charged with maintenance throughout the country”.

“This further clearly demonstrates that DHMTs are disempowered with everything including maintenance manned at Central Government. A further question will be why one company will be singularly tasked with such countrywide responsibility?

“This centralisation is breeding disaster because the former arrangement was convenient and effective in that clinics had proximity to the people and thus effective service delivery,” he said.

Consequent to centralisation, he charged that facilities were not well looked after since decisions are based in Gaborone.

“Decentralisation in this circumstance has taken away primary healthcare from liaison with stakeholders such as councillors, dikgosi, and communities themselves,” he added.

This was contrary to the former arrangement in which Council Health Committees and Village Health Committees were in existence. In their absence, he said the communities and their leadership remained mere spectators.

Since 2010, with the exception of environmental health, all primary healthcare services that had been provided by the Local Government ministry have been relocated to the health ministry.

According to the Integrated Health Service Plan; a strategy for the transformation of the sector from the period 2010-2020, “this move has been made with a view to increase efficiency and also to provide a continuum of care”.  

The document cites shortage of trained and qualified staff as a major bottleneck towards the availability of quality healthcare in Botswana.