Palapye Residents Want Blankets At Local Hospital

Koketso Kgoboge | Monday July 22, 2019 12:47

This came after the assistant minister of health Setlhomo Lelatisitswe told members of the community who had converged at the village Kgotla in large numbers that the new Palapye hospital should not be expected anytime soon.

Lelatisitswe was responding to the chairperson of the Village Development Committee (VDC) who complained that Palapye Primary Hospital was old and overwhelmed.

The VDC chairperson said the growing population of the village and its peripheries that use the health facility have overgrown the hospital and there is a need for a new one.

Although Lelatisitswe said a 120-bed hospital was planned under the National Development Plan 11, it was halted due to financial challenges.

He noted that during the coming midterm review the hospital that would have begun its designing stage this year would be one of the priority projects.  “It will take time until the facility is developed. In the meantime, plans are in motion to improve the old hospital. As a ministry we have also increased the number of doctors in the clinics,” the assistant minister said.

During the question and comments session, one Ephraim Bosekeng thought the issue of the hospital was taken lightly.

Bosekeng said he was referred to Princess Marina Referral Hospital, and he had to carry his own blankets with him.

“I am still shivering from that cold. Patients are suffering, give these blankets that you donate every day to the hospital,” he said.

In response, the junior minister announced the budget for the hospital blankets and the ministry has long released pajamas and the delays are with hospital management.

He called on the community not to disrupt the President’s initiative.

Masisi donated blankets to the elderly at the Kgotla after his meeting with the villagers.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Kefentse Mzwinila revealed that 2,400 new serviced plots in the village are ready to be delivered to new applicants by next month.

He also revealed that the Land Board has secured a 40-hectare plot in the village that would be serviced before it is delivered.