By Surihe Gaomas
WINDHOEK
Civil servants, whether they are nurses, cleaners, supervisors or even senior health managers, should be taken to task if they fail to execute their duties.
This is the message which the Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Richard Kamwi, will give out at a meeting with all health management heads at the National Health and Training Centre in Windhoek tomorrow.
“Nursing managers must stop sitting on the telephones like a remote control. Why should supervisors be sitting around only in the offices?
“Our system leaves much to be desired, because some civil servants are no longer delivering efficient health services and only a handful of them are working properly,” Kamwi said in an interview last week.
The latest meeting comes in the wake of President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s serious concern expressed over the deteriorating state of health service standards and unhygienic conditions at all national health facilities and referral hospitals in the country.
The Head of State said last Tuesday that since such deplorable conditions of service can place the health and lives of patients at risk, this prevailing situation must be rectified immediately.
There has also been a stream of complaints from dissatisfied members of the public.
“We should not allow our health facilities to deteriorate and become dilapidated … This situation must be rectified without delay,” said the President last week.
In recent weeks, media reports abounded of the deteriorating service of standards at some of the country’s health facilities, including the main national referral hospitals like Katutura State Hospital and Windhoek Central Hospital.
In response to the Head of State’s concern, Kamwi called an urgent meeting with all senior management health leaders in the ministry tomorrow.
Giving a brief preview of the meeting to New Era, the minister said that while some health workers keep hospitals and clinics clean, there are others who have adopted a “don’t-care-attitude” which cannot be tolerated.
“We want to see quality services for all health programmes, but where these programmes take place the areas must be kept clean.
Like in Oshakati and Engela, there is too much overcrowding due to the high population, unlike in the south of the country.
“Overcrowding breeds filthiness, so hospitals and clinics in the south cannot be compared to the north or those in Windhoek,” said Kamwi.
He strongly agrees with President Pohamba that something urgently needs to be done about the current situation facing state facilities in the country.
Kamwi added that those staff members who fail to stick to their duties must be taken to task and face disciplinary measures in line with the Public Services Act Number 6 of 1995, in order to stop indiscipline.
With regard to the littering problem at the two nurses’ homes in Windhoek, Kamwi suspects not everyone who stays at these quarters are nurses and heath workers.
He therefore called for a thorough stocktaking of the residents.
Kamwi said that that there must be an essence of “value for money” and all health staff must work professionally and efficiently in order to achieve effective health service delivery at the end of the day.
“Some of the complaints border on issues of a communication breakdown between supervisors and staff,” he said.
The upcoming meeting follows the one held by the health ministry in February.