28 Jun 2013

The National Strategy office (NSO) is undertaking performance surveys through the district commissioner’s office to facilitate improved service delivery, says Lobatse Town Council mayor, Ms Caroline Lesang.

Addressing a full council meeting, Cllr Lesang said mystery shopping and direct interviews had since been regularly conducted and the results showed poor service delivery, lack of service courtesy, humility and lack of Botho.

“Long queues are the order of the day with no designated area for people living with disabilities and the elderly,” said Ms Lesang.

She urged all to keep the government wheel of services fully running to empower the community they served at the same time reporting those who were showing disregard to performance and service with courtesy.

She further said poor work service delivery ethics would not be an incentive to lure investors in the township, adding that Lobatse was experiencing an attrition of business, which tended to be the LTC’s mandate to solicit dialogue with private sector to diversify the economy and reduce over reliance on government.

On issues of health, Ms Lesang said Lobatse had not yet met the target of 97 per cent of drug availability but continued to perform well as its annual availability exceeded that of the national level of three per cent.

The achievement, she said, was made possible by proactive gestures from the staff by sourcing from other facilities, using pharmaceutical equivalents and alternative products or exchanging products between facilities.

However, Cllr Lesang told the meeting that the health management team was concerned about the type of blankets that were currently available for patients at the district hospital.

She explained that standard blankets (cellular) were supposed to be bought for patients, adding that the blankets could only work well in an environment that had effective heating system. She added that since the hospital had problems with the heating system, their comfort and needs would not be fully met.

On a positive note, she said a waiver was requested from the ministry to buy non-cellular blankets that could provide enough warmth at the same time being acceptable for the patient’s dignity.

The waiver was granted and P30 000 had been set aside to buy blankets, she said, adding that proper blankets would not cause problems to the laundry machines that had been identified. She informed the council that procurement process was almost complete.ENDS