By Surihe Gaomas WINDHOEK Although the Minister of Health and Social Services Dr Richard Kamwi has expressed unhappiness with the current state of affairs in the public health sector, he says the challenges are due to budgetary constraints. A critical shortage of medical staff, lack of adequate medical equipment, electricity blackouts and water shortages now recently at the Katutura State Hospital are just some of the many challenges facing the health ministry. In an interview with New Era yesterday, Kamwi said the biggest bottlenecks were financial budgetary constraints, which limit his ministry in addressing the country’s vast health needs. “I am not happy to see this situation really and the major constraint is funding. Funding should not be left to government alone, we want to see other sectors coming in as well and not just condemning the problems all the time,” said Kamwi. He said as much as the promotion of health care delivery was the mandate of the line ministry, issues like water and electricity were not under its jurisdiction, but that of the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication. Although the health ministry gets the second largest share of the national budget of N$1.6-billion after the Ministry of Education, it grapples with challenges aplenty on a yearly basis. While three-quarters of this N$1.6-billion goes to salaries alone, the remaining quarter goes to the building of new health infrastructure. “We still rely heavily on expatriates. While we are supposed to have three ambulances for each health facility, we have some places in the country that only run on one such vehicle, because there’s just not enough money for more. From where do we milk this money,” asked Kamwi. On lack of medical equipment, Kamwi said the health ministry has been aware of this problem for some time and three years ago had come up with a feasibility study to assess the situation in the country. It was found then that 40 percent of the equipment was obsolete and government therefore put forward an international tender for supply to which Finland responded to the value of N$200-million. “It (equipment) is being ferried from Europe and it is coming,” said Kamwi. Meanwhile, yesterday the Congress of Democrats (COD) issued a statement condemning the current state of health facilities in the country. The statement, by the political party spokesperson Natjirikasorua Tjirera asks whether “our state hospitals are health or death centres”. Stating that the lack of equipment, power outages and general unhygienic conditions in State health facilities were “deplorable”, the CoD called on President Hifikepunye Pohamba to take the line minister (Dr Kamwi) to task over “the deteriorating state of our health facilities without delay”. “Dr Kamwi should answer to the nation as to why the health facilities in the country are so deplorable and why the power outages are becoming such a frequent occurrence at our health facilities. We believe that the state of our health facilities is compromising the health of this country’s citizens,” said Tjirera. He said the minister must “deal with these problems without delay and failure to do so, he should resign with immediate effect”. In reaction to this Kamwi said that the statement was nonsensical. “It’s nonsense, it’s jealousy. I was not put here by the CoD. Why should I be judged on water and electricity problems? Let us rather look at the health service delivery indicators. I don’t like these kinds of arguments, I want scientific-based arguments,” said the minister. He said that in terms of health standards, Namibia was among the best countries alongside Botswana and Uganda to meet its National Development Plan Three health targets in tuberculosis and malaria. “We are ahead with our targets by far. We are even preparing our pre-medical students to study in South Africa, Russia, Cuba, Tanzania and Ghana in specialised fields,” said Kamwi. With its current budget, although limited, the ministry strives to address challenges, but this is being done in phases, which takes time for results to be realised. Kamwi therefore called for public patience.