Things fall apart at Onandjokwe hospital

Torn, filthy linen, laundry machines broken down, and pregnant mothers sleeping in tents.

This is the situation at Onandjokwe Intermediate Hospital in the Oshikoto region.

The appalling situation was discovered after the parliamentary standing committee on gender equality, social development and family affairs visited the hospital yesterday.

The committee is on an inspection visit of hospitals in the north. This week they visited hospitals at Tsandi, Outapi, Engela, Oshakati, Onandjokwe and Omuthiya. The committee is expected to visit Tsumeb hospital today.

The committee consists of Swapo parliamentarians Ephraim Nekongo, Paula Kooper, Emilia Nuyoma-Amupewa, Maria Elago, Republican Party member of parliament Hirlinde Tjiveze and Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) legislator Jennifer van den Heever.

The visits are a response to a motion introduced in the National Assembly last year by PDM parliamentarian Winnie Moongo to discuss and investigate the deplorable and inhospitable state of mental health institutions and facilities.

The committee started its inspections on 6 August.

The head of the committee, Nekongo, yesterday expressed dissatisfaction with the “old and unusable” bedding at Onandjokwe hospital.

“When we were saying that the government needed to buy linen, this is what we were talking about. The linen is very old and the washing machines are broken,” Nekongo said.

Nekongo said the hospital informed them that they keep requesting for new linen, but the hospital is not allowed to buy its own linen.

“We continue saying that the colleagues in Windhoek have centralised procurement, but this is what we are going through here,” he said.
According to Nekongo, when the ministry receives complaints from the hospitals it believes that they are joking.

“The hospital needs new linen and blankets as well as uniforms as soon as possible. If the hospital could be given the mandate to buy its own linen, patients would not suffer like this,” Nekongo said.

He added that the committee is visiting hospitals to show the health minister and his executive director things they are finding out.

“All this linen is worn-out and the cleaners informed me that they are going to sew them together because there is no option ,” he said.

“The government must buy, if funds are there. We cannot continue with this, comrade minister and executive director,” Nekongo said.

Nekongo said the committee is not accusing the minister of not doing his job, as there are good things that the hospitals are doing.

A chief registered nurse Helena Nghipandulwa, who has been working at the hospital since 1989, informed the committee that the linen the hospital has came from the Lutheran Medical Services before the hospital was handed over to the government.

“Since then, we have not received any new linen,” Nghipandulwa said.

‘BROKEN WASHING MACHINES’

The parliamentary committee found that the hospital laundry machines are broken and linen is sent to Engela District Hospital in the Ohangwena region to be washed.

Engela district hospital is more than 100 kilometers from Onandjokwe Intermediate Hospital.

‘TEMPORARY SHELTER’

The committee found that expecting mothers at the hospital have been accommodated in a tent since 2018 because work on a maternity ward has not been completed.

Nekongo said the hospital is still constructing a maternity ward, which was supposed to be completed in 2018.

“If this ward was completed this could be a problem of the past … the government must fast track the completion of this ward to ensure that these expecting mothers are in a proper environment,” Nekongo added.

Contacted for comments yesterday, health and social services minister Kalumbi Shangula said he could not comment on the matter as he was in a meeting.