THE ongoing renovations at the Onandjokwe Lutheran Hospital will cost government about N$62 million. The Oshikoto control and administrative officer in the health ministry, David Mulilo and the director of health, Peter Angala, confirmed to The Namibian.
The government is building a new maternity ward while renovating the casualty unit and the outpatients’ departments.
Mulilo said the ministry will use funds from its minor capital projects for the renovations.
According to Mulilo, renovations of the casualty section cost N$929 000, and those for the outpatients’ department cost over N$1,3 million. Angala said the new maternity ward which is being built by Amupolo Building Construction will cost N$59 million.
“Although the casualty ward is completed, it is not yet open because oxygen equipment needs to be installed. I gave them until the end of this week to install,” Angala stated.
He also said since the hospital will now operate as an intermediate hospital, the region will need a district hospital to take over the roles which were performed by Onandjokwe.
“We wrote a motivation letter to the ministry to upgrade the Okankolo Health Centre to a district [hospital],” Angala said.
He said health personnel remains a challenge, with the patient-doctor ratio now standing at 10 000 to 1. The hospital also has a shortage of nurses and pharmacists.
“The drivers are also a challenge because we need paramedics, and currently we only have ordinary drivers. I had a meeting with the drivers that those who do not meet the requirements will have to be transferred to other health facilities so that we can fill the skills’ shortage gap,” Angala noted.
During a visit to the hospital on Saturday, The Namibian observed that the casualty unit was fully renovated and only needs oxygen installations before it is opened to the public.
The hospital, which is more than a 100 years old, was run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia, but was handed over to government in August last year.
It was decided to renovate the hospital after health minister Bernard Haufiku expressed shock at the hospital’s state during his familiarisation tour of the Oshikoto region in May last year.
Last year, head of the paediatrics department Dr Sifelani Mthombeni told Haufiku that the hospital, confirmed as a referral centre in 2010 and serving 81 099 people according to the 2011 census, needs to have 66 doctors and at least 400 nurses.
According to the information given to Haufiku by Mthombeni, there are 20 general medical officers, two surgeons, one obstetrician and a gynaecologist, a specialist physician, and an anaesthetist at the hospital.
He further said there are 125 registered nurses, 124 enrolled nurses as well as a dentist and a pharmacist, although there are 12 health facilities, eight clinics, three health centres and 48 outreach points under the institution.
At the time, Haufiku was shocked at the condition of the hospital – the cracks in the walls and the holes in the ceilings, while the toilets for staff as well as for patients were not functioning. Some of the toilets have since been fixed, while others are still out of order.
