Minister takes councils to task over hospital woes

HEALTH Minister Richard Kamwi has blamed the water woes at the Keetmanshoop State Hospital on the town council, which he called “unreasonable”.

The council has cut the hospital’s water supply on several occasions because of non-payment. Recently, the hospital was again left without water – for six hours this time – because of an unpaid water bill.The Health Ministry apparently owed the Town Council close to N$200 000 at that time.In an interview with The Namibian at the end of last week, Kamwi said the Keetmanshoop Town Council was putting people’s lives at risk by cutting off the hospital’s water.”Why do they have to punish the patients,” he asked.Kamwi said technical problems with the Health Ministry’s central payment system were to blame for the late payments.However, Kamwi was quick to warn that he would not protect any health official found guilty of delaying the payments.The Chief Executive Officer of the Keetmanshoop municipality, Jeremia Shangadi, defended the council’s actions.He said the council too had commitments to meet, and at times was forced to go to such lengths to collect debts.According to Kamwi, the Health Ministry’s Deputy Director of Finance, a certain Mr Beukes, had guaranteed him that technical problems in the payment system had been fixed last Monday.But by Sunday the Berseba clinic was still without electricity.The village council’s suspension of the clinic’s power supply has halted vaccinations at the clinic.Children in need of vaccination against diseases such as polio, TB and measles were turned away last week because the power cut prevented the clinic from keeping vaccines refrigerated.Kamwi blamed the spoilage of vaccines on the village council.He also expressed concern over the ambulance crisis at the Keetmanshoop State Hospital.The hospital’s ambulance, which had 400 000 kilometres on its odometer, was grounded three weeks ago after it experienced frequent breakdowns.”It’s impossible for a hospital to go without an ambulance for up to three weeks,” Kamwi said.”This is news to me and surely if it is the case, something is drastically wrong at the regional health office,” he added.According to the Minister, he had not been informed about the lack of an ambulance at the hospital.He pledged to deal with the matter this week and warned that steps might be taken against those officials who had not told him about the ambulance crisis.”If they had informed me, we could have worked out something,” he said angrily.Kamwi admitted that transport problems were crippling most State hospitals in the country.He noted that provision had been made in this year’s health budget for the acquisition of vehicles, including ambulances.”It’s not something that can be solved overnight.We are doing as much as we can right now, but the bureaucratic process is going to cost time,” he warned.Recently, the hospital was again left without water – for six hours this time – because of an unpaid water bill.The Health Ministry apparently owed the Town Council close to N$200 000 at that time.In an interview with The Namibian at the end of last week, Kamwi said the Keetmanshoop Town Council was putting people’s lives at risk by cutting off the hospital’s water.”Why do they have to punish the patients,” he asked.Kamwi said technical problems with the Health Ministry’s central payment system were to blame for the late payments.However, Kamwi was quick to warn that he would not protect any health official found guilty of delaying the payments.The Chief Executive Officer of the Keetmanshoop municipality, Jeremia Shangadi, defended the council’s actions.He said the council too had commitments to meet, and at times was forced to go to such lengths to collect debts.According to Kamwi, the Health Ministry’s Deputy Director of Finance, a certain Mr Beukes, had guaranteed him that technical problems in the payment system had been fixed last Monday.But by Sunday the Berseba clinic was still without electricity.The village council’s suspension of the clinic’s power supply has halted vaccinations at the clinic.Children in need of vaccination against diseases such as polio, TB and measles were turned away last week because the power cut prevented the clinic from keeping vaccines refrigerated.Kamwi blamed the spoilage of vaccines on the village council.He also expressed concern over the ambulance crisis at the Keetmanshoop State Hospital.The hospital’s ambulance, which had 400 000 kilometres on its odometer, was grounded three weeks ago after it experienced frequent breakdowns.”It’s impossible for a hospital to go without an ambulance for up to three weeks,” Kamwi said.”This is news to me and surely if it is the case, something is drastically wrong at the regional health office,” he added.According to the Minister, he had not been informed about the lack of an ambulance at the hospital.He pledged to deal with the matter this week and warned that steps might be taken against those officials who had not told him about the ambulance crisis.”If they had informed me, we could have worked out something,” he said angrily.Kamwi admitted that transport problems were crippling most State hospitals in the country.He noted that provision had been made in this year’s health budget for the acquisition of vehicles, including ambulances.”It’s not something that can be solved overnight.We are doing as much as we can right now, but the bureaucratic process is going to cost time,” he warned.