Letsholathebe Hospital provides specialist services - Minister
MoH refers patients to private health facilities for services not available within Govt facilities Ministry plans to secure 52 ambulances across the country during TNDP
The Ministry of Health only refers patients to private health facilities for services that are not available within government health facilities.
Assistant Minister of Health, Setlhomo Lelatisitswe explained to Parliament that his ministry recently prioritised Letsholathebe Hospital with regards to specialist services.
He was responding to a question by Member of Parliament for Maun, Dumelang Saleshando who wanted to find out the number of patients on the waiting list for medical procedures or operations not offered by Letsholathebe Hospital.
Lelatisitswe said the Ministry is unable to state the number of patients waiting for surgical procedures for services not offered in Letsholathebe Hospital as these patients are registered in Nyangabgwe and Princess Marina Hospitals where these same services are provided. These include; Ear, Nose and Throat, Urology, Neurosurgery, cardiac surgery, Orthospine, and Arthroplasty.
He added that Letsholathebe Hospital now has the following specialist services; Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Orthopaedics, Anaesthesiology, Gynaecology, Cardiology, Paediatric, Oncology and Ophthalmology.
Furthermore, Letsholathebe Hospital has advanced in imaging services which include a working CT scan to assist doctors in diagnosing different medical conditions. The Intensive Care Unit and Theatre have recently been refurbished.
“We recently opened a nephrology centre that also offers kidney dialysis services and the average waiting period for these procedures is currently at 13 months,” he said.
According to Lelatisitswe, the waiting periods are as follows; Speciality ENT waiting period is 13 months at Princess Marina Hospital, Speciality Urology waiting period eliminated at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital and Princess Marina, Speciality Neurosurgery waiting period is six months at Nyangabwe, Speciality Cardiac surgery waiting period is eight months, however, urgent cases are attended immediately at Princess Marina and some are outsourced to private facilities.
Speciality orthspine on the other hand has no waiting period at Princess Marina, Speciality athoplasty has a waiting period of 18 months at Princess Marina, which is currently the longest waiting period.
Answering another question by MP for Bobirwa Taolo Lucas, Lelatisitswe confirmed that there is undeniably acute shortage of ambulances in Bobonong District which his ministry wishes to address in the near future, funds allowing. He added that although there is a plan to purchase more ambulances for the districts, funds remain a challenge in this endeavour. “My ministry remains committed to ensuring that more ambulances will be purchased as a matter of priority for Bobonong District upon availability of funds.”
Lelatisitswe said the Ministry plans to procure 52 ambulances through the development budget during the Transitional National Plan from < a href=” tel: 2023/ 24 - 2024”> 2023/ 24 - 2024/ 2025 financial year.
Further, that since April 2023, seven ambulances were procured for Joseph Kavindama Primary Hospital in Shakawe, Moshupa Primary Hospital, Makalamabedi, Sepopa, Ngarange and Kauxwi.
He said the remaining 45 vehicles will be procured in the 2024/ 2025 to align with the completion of the ongoing projects. Furthermore, that no ambulances have been procured for Bobirwa District since the beginning of this year. He explained that Bobirwa District has a total of 12 ambulances and two other vehicles that are used to transport patients in the Lepokole - Molalatau cluster. The district has four clusters and each cluster has two ambulances, except Lepokole- Molalatau Cluster, while Bobonong Primary Hospital has six ambulances.