Finally Marina opens up
Mmegi Editor | Wednesday August 26, 2015 16:56
It is commendable that after many years of media blackout, Princess Marina Hospital (PMH) has finally opened up about the problem bedeviling the country’s biggest referral hospital.
Prior to a shake up in its public relations department, the hospital was as unreachable as planet mercury. While the hospital tended to be in the news for all the wrong reasons, getting a simple comment to balance the stories was, for a long time, an uphill battle. At times, the inaccessibility to the hospital management, led to more bad publicity. Hopefully the media engagement will lead to better communication and flow of information.
Back to the issue of overcrowding; the hospital management attributed this to a lot of factors, both internal and external. They stated that the problem is so bad that patient quality care has seriously been compromised, at times leading to deaths. The management was however optimistic that interventions put in place to arrest the situation would bear fruit.
While as service providers, Marina management is expected to deliver as expected, not all the blame can be put on their doorstep though. Patients who overlook other health facilities in preference of the main hospital compound the problem.
Besides Marina, the greater Gaborone has five public health facilities with maternity wards and operating a 24-hour service. These are clinics in Broadhurst, Gaborone West, Lesirane, Old Naledi and Mafitlhakgosi in Tlokweng. Instead of utilising these facilities, many patients head straight to the referral hospital. There are many reasons why patients would prefer a facility to the other, and customer care is tops. When customers feel neglected by the service providers, they always go for the alternative, where they know that they can also report ill treatment to the supervisors on the spot.
Most complain that staff at these clinics does not give much care and attention to the patients. It is our hope that staff at these facilities, and elsewhere in the country would appreciate that customer care is critical to service delivery. They need to up their game. Also, the step taken by PMH to open up to members of the public should be seen as a step in the right direction not only by other health facilities, but service providers across sectors. By sharing their challenges, Marina is opening up to stakeholders to appreciate and offer help where they can.
Our belief is that by opening up to the media, the hospital management is giving public commitment to right the wrongs of the past and give assurance to provision of quality service. We therefore, applaud the hospital for this initiative and hope it does not end just as it starts.
Today’s thought
“You can’t have public health without working with the public sector. You can’t have public education without working with the public sector in education.”
- Paul Farmer