Bagcugcuteli last paid 2 months ago
MBABANE – Without the attention given to the sick by Rural Health Motivators (RHM), especially in rural areas, the health system could collapse.
This was a view given by some nurses while referring to health motivators, locally referred to as bagcugcuteli. Eswatini has thousands of health motivators trained to take care of the sick in their communities. Both males and females are accepted to volunteer as health motivators.
The health motivators receive an allowance of E350 for minor expenses as they go about their duties. Each health motivator visits about 40 to 100 homesteads in their communities.
They visit the homesteads to check on the sick and assist with medication. They also assist in emergencies by advising the best option for a patient, particularly when they need to be rushed to the hospital.
Some of the medical personnel who spoke on condition of anonymity said bagcugcuteli play a huge role in ensuring that people under home-based care receive the necessary medical care. Under home-based care patients, including the terminally ill such as people with advanced stages of cancer or even on issues related to HIV/AIDS, depend on health motivators to assist.
The health motivators also assist in advising on other health-related matters such as where to build pit latrines in homesteads that do not have them.
Bagcugcuteli can also check on pregnant women as well as sickly children to ensure they receive the necessary medical care.
According to some of the health motivators, who asked not to be mentioned, being a health motivator was not an easy task. *Jackie said though she volunteered to do it, she faced many challenges such as going around communities. She said it was costly to move around because one had to ensure that the clothes they wore were clean. “With the money we get, we use it to buy washing soap and many other necessities,” said Jackie.
Problems
She lamented that the health motivators had not been paid since December 2022. She said the last payment they received was made in December. She said some received the money via a Mobile Money transfer while others got it in cash. She said in the past, they used to get the money monthly without any problems, but that this seemed to have changed.
Also, Jackie said not getting their allowance was not the only challenge they had. She said they were also struggling to acquire medication as part of their packages for home-based care.
She said they were given at least 30 panado tablets per month for emergencies to provide to those in urgent need but that this was no longer the case. The shortage of medicines in hospitals, according to Jackie, had made home-based care very difficult.
Dr Velephi Okelo, the Director of Health Services in the Health Ministry, noted the challenges of drug shortages but said the department was working to ensure that this was no longer the case. On the issue of health motivators not getting paid, Okelo referred questions to the Principal Secretary (PS).
The Minister of Health, Lizzie Nkosi, when reached for comment said she would have to consult with the PS on the matter.
In a response from PS, Dr Simon Zwane, it was stated that the ministry had paid the RHM up to December 2022. “Additionally, some of the outstanding RHM’s stipend payments were also paid in full during the December 2022 payments and few remaining will be receiving the subsequent payments,” stated the PS in the response.
He stated that the payment for January 2023 stipend was attributed to the changeover at the Office of the Financial Controller. Furthermore, he stated that the payments had been processed at the Treasury Department and that individual RHMs payments were imminent.
*Not real name.