By Kefiloe Kajane
The Queen ‘Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) which was operated by Tṧepong will officially be operated by the government of Lesotho from Wednesday next week.
This was disclosed by QMMH public relations officer Thakane Mapeshoane in an interview with theReporter yesterday. She said the staff were informed by their boss that the hospital is now to be run by the government.
Trucks full of furniture and other items were seen leaving the facility that has for a long time been run by Tṧepong (Pty) Ltd under the Netcare Group of South Africa.
Although the management had not addressed the workers officially by this week, they witnessed loads of equipment being hauled away to an unknown destination.
“Not much has changed up to this stage as we are still admitting patients and those that were already here still get services. We are working manually because Tṧepong had taken its systems that we used to capture information and to dispense medication. But we are still trying to provide much-needed services.
“It is us who should render the services to the patients and not the technology systems. We have to work manually at this stage. We try as much as it can be to help these out-patients in a normal way,” she said.
A patient that talked to this paper who was at the hospital on Wednesday said she was scheduled for surgery removal but she was returned. She said she was told that there was not enough equipment in the theatre rooms as Tṧepong was packing some of its equipment on trucks.
This comes after Tṧepong fired over 300 nurses who wanted a salary increment a few months ago, who were later absorbed by the ministry of health into other hospitals around the country.
Speaking to this paper this week, Lesotho Nursing Association’s secretary general Monica Nokhesi expressed delight at “seeing Tsepong moving away, given the unpalatable way the company treated our members.”
She said nurses know the conditions that Tṧepong had subjected their members to and there was no reason not to be happy to see it exiting the referral hospital.
“We are now hopeful that the government of Lesotho will work to get the hospital running smoothly again. Tṧepong trained us as nurses and we know our job in and out. We know that the nurses will fully commit themselves to ensure the good health of our people,” she said.
The situation follows some uncertainty that was abound last month when speculation did rounds that Tsepong had been given 60 days to vacate the premises after a breakdown in relations with the government.
But then the health ministry’s spokesperson Tumisang Mokoai declined any knowledge of the instruction said to have been contained in a letter addressed to the administration of the facility on June 1.
Mapeshoane then had confirmed to this paper that the hospital received a letter from government indicating that the hospital administrators and staff should vacate in two months’ time.
She said the information was relayed to them by the hospital boss after apparently receiving the letter on June 1.
“We do not know as yet what will happen to the workforce. We have not been alerted whether the administration has reacted to the letter or not. We are not aware of the author or origin of the letter,” Mapeshoane said.
This is after the government’s announcement in March of its intention to sever all ties with Tšepong (Pty) Ltd which manages QMMH.
Some stakeholders have welcomed the move as long overdue and one which will go a long way to saving taxpayers’ money and restoring Basotho’s faith in the country’s health system.
QMMH was a public-private partnership managed by the Tshepong Consortium, led by Netcare, a leading South African health care provider. The facility and the associated filter clinics at Qoaling, Mabote, and Likotsi were part of the government of Lesotho’s strategic push to improve maternal health, reduce child mortality and combat HIV/AIDS.
