BOFEPUSU, Gov’t Clash Over IHS Lecturers Deployment
As pressure mounts on authorities to push the inoculation of citizens, government and trade unions have clashed over the deployment of the Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) lecturers to administer COVID-19 jabs.
This week, the Botswana Federation of Public Private and Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) condemned the government instruction for IHS lecturers to take part in the COVID-19 vaccination exercise at the District Health Management Teams (DHMT).
The federation’s deputy secretary, Ketlhalefile Motshegwa said the unilateral action affects the concerned lecturers’ job descriptions, yet there was no consultation with them.
He said government should instead use the opportunity to engage unemployed graduate nurses currently roaming the streets.
“There are many graduate nurses roaming the streets unemployed and are the ones that should be roped in for this exercise and be paid accordingly. These graduates need to be engaged because the current health sector workforce is overwhelmed, and further their engagement on a permanent basis will help in addressing the challenge of nurse-patient ratio,” Motshegwa said.
The federation bemoaned this circumstance is testimony that there is no proper coordination and consultation in the vaccination roll-out programme.
The federation said workers are just being thrown around as they get ignored in their request for personal protection equipment (PPE), COVID-19 vaccination and risk allowance.
The Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Douglas Letsholathebe said he would look into the matter to interrogate the circumstances under which the lecturers were engaged.
“Well, I am not aware of the circumstances under which they were engaged. I’ll look into it and find out exactly what happened. But, do you find anything wrong with it?” he asked rhetorically.
For his part, the Assistant Minister of Health and Wellness, Sethomo Lelatisitswe said there is nothing wrong with the engagement of lecturers to administer vaccines.
Lelatisitswe pointed out that IHS lecturers are professionals in this field and should be ready to perform duties related to their profession.
“IHS falls under the Ministry of Tertiary Education, but I want to say there is nothing wrong with the deployment of lecturers to assist with administering jabs because they are professionals in this field,” he said.
“Again, their contracts state that they have to perform any other duties that they are assigned to perform when it is necessary. They can’t refuse that instruction. If they were under my ministry, I will also instruct them to do that.”
It is said that the pandemic has worsened the shortage of manpower, especially nurses on the ground, as some have succumbed to COVID-19 while others are in isolation. The acute shortage of nurses has in part been blamed for the slow vaccination roll-out exercise.