THE continued revelations of crumbling health infrastructure and dwindling levels of care should be addressed as a matter of urgency. 

There is a powerful African proverb that says: “When the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers”. This, in essence, means when powerful forces go to war, it is the masses who endure pain the most. 

This idiom comes to mind when one looks at a recent disturbing New Era report about residents of Kries, a village some 60km west of Mariental in the Hardap region who have been denied the use of a health facility by feuding political foes – the Landless People’s Movement and the ruling Swapo.  The donated fully-equipped container clinic cost the Namibia Ports Authority N$360 000, yet to this day, its intended beneficiaries have had to wait for over two years for political adversaries to come to their senses. 

It is disheartening that politicians would rather subject Kries’ residents to expensive transportation costs to travel to Mariental rather than walk to an already available facility when a health emergency strikes.  These politicians must be ashamed of themselves for gambling with the most precious gift on earth – human life. Without delay, the clinic, albeit in a container, should open its doors for residents to access the basic services that come with it.  But the challenges confronting the health sector go beyond the Kries’ debacle.  This week, another disturbing report surfaced about the serious state of affairs at the Rundu Intermediate Hospital in Kavango East.  Not only is there a shortage of personnel and medical equipment, but the hospital – which caters to more than 80 000 people – only has three running ambulances.  To add insult to injury, despite recently being given the status of an intermediate hospital, the upgrade was never accompanied by a requisite staff complement to cater to the new functions. Again, this buttresses a tag that the government has struggled to brush off over the years - that it has brilliant plans and strategies on paper, but is terrible at executing them.  Had there been proper planning and necessary resources allocated, the dilemma Rundu finds itself in should never have seen the light of day. It gets worse for the town as medicine and clinical supplies worth N$20 million kept at the Rundu Medical Store are on the verge of going to waste due to a dysfunctional cooling system. It is difficult to fathom losing crucial medical supplies that cost taxpayers millions for what could simply be minor repair or maintenance work on the facility.  If the medicine indeed goes to waste, the heads of those responsible must not only roll but they must also be held financially liable for the loss. 

More so, another Achilles’ heel in our healthcare system that for the most part goes unnoticed is the shortage of personnel and facilities across the country to cater for mental patients.  As we speak, around 3 000 patients seeking mental health services from the two Kavango regions and Zambezi are catered for by the Rundu Intermediate Hospital. Despite this, communities, including politicians, have rejected the ministry’s idea of transforming the Nankudu District Hospital in Kavango West into a mental health institution to meet the overwhelming demand. Again, it is the mental patients who bear the brunt of this refusal. 

The situation is no better in Oshakati, where the intermediate hospital’s management is asking for a separate psychiatric unit to cater to mental health patients as its capacity has been stretched beyond its elastic parameters.  Overcrowding has forced some mental health patients to sleep on the floor.

This is all while the country is confronted by a mental health crisis of enormous proportions.  All these health issues confronting the public health sector were uncovered during visits to the facilities by parliamentary standing committees, who are on a national tour, assessing public hospitals and health centres. It is an open secret that health is among the biggest recipients of the national budget, receiving billions of dollars, year-in-year-out.  But while the finance minister gets a pat on the back each year for the allocation to the ministry of health, questions we should be asking are: Are we getting value for our money? Are our people being cared for when they are at their most vulnerable?  We are certainly not getting value for our money when expectant mothers have to sleep in the open, or when patients are turned away due to lack of medicine or clinical supplies. 

It is time the nation rethinks the financing of public health, which sees 80% of the budget gobbled up by salaries. This is not sustainable.  It is time to revive, with utmost seriousness and without politicising, the discussion around the National Medical Benefit Fund (NMBF), which is the only way of getting closer to achieving universal access to healthcare.A