Lesotho- Doctors' protest hits Seboche Hospital

MASERU - THE protest by public hospital doctors has prompted the Seboche RC Mission Hospital to cut the number of patients it attends to daily to only 70.
The hospital, based in Butha-Buthe, was serving 200 patients daily before the protest action, according to the authorities.
Sister Catherine Lebina, the Nursing Manager at Seboche Hospital, said the decision to cut on the number of patients followed the realisation that many patients were going back home without seeing a doctor.

Sister Lebina said the hospital is overwhelmed by the increasing number of patients seeking services since public hospital doctors began their protest over working conditions in October.

Government-paid doctors countrywide suspended all critical emergency services after working hours and on weekends since October.
Doctors are protesting against the government's slow response to their request for adequate medical equipment and allowances for working outside normal hours.
'This has taken a toll on us because we are now forced to serve people that would have rather been served by government health facilities,' Sister Lebina said.

'On weekends it gets extremely hectic because government hospital doctors are not working at all at this time' Lebina said.
She said the hospital serves an average of 50 outpatient clients, 50 people of antiretroviral treatment, 30 males at the male clinic and 45 mothers and their under five children daily.
The numbers in the emergency section and casualty have since been on the rise on weekends.

'This department is flooded with people of serious emergencies and those that assume their illness is an emergency when it is not,' she said.
The threshold of 70 patients does not include pregnant women, children under five and critical emergencies.
Sister Lebina said the biggest worry is the antiretroviral treatment department because of the increasing number of patients who receive antiretroviral drugs.
'Some even come without transfer letters or proper documentation,' she said.

'When people show up and are in need of services we cannot turn them back. We have to help them and not even discriminate them for coming from other parts of the district where they could have otherwise been helped,' she said.
Lebina said the situation is worsened by the fact that some district health managers are part of the protesting doctors that signed the petition to the government detailing their grievances.

Doctor Lebohang Sao, the District Health Management Officer, said she has received a letter from Seboche Hospital informing her of the decision to reduce the number of patients served at the hospital.
She told thepost that she does not understand 'what the burden is' because doctors in Butha-Buthe are not on strike.
'They work 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. like everybody and leave,' Sao said.
She confirmed that doctors are not on duty on weekends and during the night.

'During the day the work is done and this is the time that patients come in bigger numbers,' Sao said.
The Butha-Buthe District Administrator, Lehlohonolo Qhasho, described the hospital's decision as 'the most devastating news ever from Seboche'.

'The government needs to come up with a solution as soon as it can,' Qhasho said.
'I understand why Seboche is frustrated, not only does it accommodate patients from Butha-Buthe but people from Mokhotlong, Leribe and TY (TeyaTeyaneng) come here,' he said.

Rose Moremoholo

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