20 Mar 2025

 The Ministry of Health has faced budget constraint in recent years and this has contributed to the maintenance backlog and some of the current deficiencies in the Thamaga Primary Hospital facility.

Assistant Minister of Health, Mr Lawrence Ookeditse said this when answering a parliamentary question recently. He said the ministry fully recognised that the current maintenance status of the hospital had fallen short of the standards expected for a hospital of its importance.

Mr Ookeditse underscored that the ministry was committed to ensuring proper maintenance of all health care institutions to ensure safety and well being of both patients and staff. He said the ministry has undertaken an assessment to identify all maintenance needs of the hospital, adding that the tender for general maintenance for the hospital was at vetting stage, and that once the vetting was completed, companies would be invited to tender for the works, with the project anticipated to start by end of June 2025.

“As a long term strategy, a proposal for a major refurbishment and modernisation plan for the hospital will be proposed through the NDP 12, which will address both the physical infrastructure and the need for upgraded medical equipment,” he said.

On the aspect of staff overstays, Mr Ookeditse further indicated that it was true that some members of staff at the hospital had overstayed in their duty station for more than five years.
He said the hospital had a total of 21 overstays of which, 15 were nursing staff, three procurement officers, one human resource officer and one pharmacy officer.

“This is common in other health facilities across the country and therefore requiring the ministry to do mass transfers, which will be costly in the current economic environment,” he said.

Furthermore, he said the relocation of Primary Health Care to local government necessitated that they freeze transfers to allow smooth transition. With regard to the condition of the standby generator for the hospital, he shared that the generator has been regarded obsolete, as it was no longer economical to repair.

“My Ministry has therefore secured an approval to procure a new generator on the 8th January 2025,” he noted.

He shared that the contractor had ordered a new standby generator and anticipated installation on the 1st week of April.

“The commissioning and final inspection is planned on the 3rd week of April 2025,” he said.

Thamaga-Kumakwane MP, Mr Palelo Motaosane had wanted to know the staffing situation and condition of the hospital. He also wanted to be apprised on the issue of overstaying of some staff members, and also to understand why the hospital generator was not working. ENDS