FACT-FINDING: DPM, HEALTH MINISTER, VISIT GOVT HOSPITAL

MBABANE – Following concerns raised at Sibaya on the country’s health status, the Minister of Health, Mduduzi Matsebula, and the DPM Thuli Dladla, initiated their investigations with a tour of the Mbabane Government Hospital, yesterday.

As early as 8am, both the minister and deputy prime minister (DPM) said they were intent on getting the true picture of what was happening ahead of the budget for the next financial year. They were taken on a guided tour of the hospital and were also shown the new referral facility. While touring the facility, they were shown the children’s Renal Unit, where they expressed serious concern about kidney failure affecting children in the country.
Addressing the minister, Dr Thandiwe Dlamini stated that the youngest patient attended to was about 13 years old. Asked on statistics of children who were currently on dialysis, Dr Dlamini said they were working with the School’s Health, under the ministry, to collect data, adding that they would need technical advice from stakeholders.

Crisis

Meanwhile, the minister of Health said they had started addressing the current health crisis, urging the nation to be patient as they attempted to respond to the concerns.“The hospital is currently faced with a drug and medical supply shortage, equipment as well as staff that needed to be complemented,” the minister said. Matsebula said they had already hit the ground running, further assuring the nation of an imminent change in service delivery under the health sector. He said they would work hard, in partnership with government, to ensure quality in service delivery.
He said the collective responsibility had already begun, which was why the DPM had accompanied him and the entire ministry, which responded promptly.

Asked on his priority response list, the minister said it would be to hire more staff, adding that government had lifted the hiring freeze.  This, he said, was to allow for smooth operations.  On the issue of drug shortages, he said there were emergency means being undertaken by the ministry, to ensure that they were available, while still attending to the source of the problem. Dladla, on the other hand, stated that they had established that there was staff shortage and other critical things which were affecting the hospital.

The DPM said she had tagged along to support the minister and that they would be raising the concerns during Cabinet meetings. Of note, the ministers were expected to report their preliminary findings to Cabinet at 9am, yesterday. Dladla said by first establishing the challenges, they would be in a position to report on what they had seen.“We have received a briefing from the administration and experienced first-hand some of the concerns. This will allow us to report precisely,” she said.

She said it was not the first or last time for them to visit the hospital, as they would return to monitor progress on issues of drug shortages.
Dladla said they would make sure that the hospital had all the required stock levels of drugs. The DPM stated they had realised that the hospital did not have enough drugs, but also considered the volumes of people who came to access health services on a daily basis.  Furthermore, she mentioned that the rate at which the stock supply was slow, escalated the drugs shortage.

The DPM has suggested that the Ministry of Health should engage retired nurses to capture important data and studies. Dladla was speaking during the tour of the Mbabane Government Hospital upon being updated that there was no captured data for the children renal patients. She said a study needed to be conducted to establish the cause of kidney failure among children.  Dladla said whenever there was a need for a certain project, the ministry should be able to utilise the pool of retired healthcare workers.

Patient

Meanwhile, a patient, Mfundo Nxumalo, attracted the attention of the Minister of Health, Matsebula, at the hospital yesterday. He seized the opportunity to speak to the minister, where he requested that his ministry should purchase certain drugs which were not on stock yet they were key in healing his ailment. The drugs are known as Rifampicin. They are strong antibiotics and used to treat several types of bacterial infections. 

Nxumalo, who was involved in an accident in 2022, stated that as a result of not being able to find the drugs, his injury was not getting any better. He was injured on the right foot. He said he had searched, without success, for medication which was prescribed by the doctors at hospital. The minister was touched by the incident and requested Nxumalo’s personal details promising to get back to him.

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