Limpho Sello
PATIENTS at Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) in Maseru have called on hospital staff, particularly nurses to improve service delivery, amid revelations that it takes hours for patients to be attended to at the health institution.
The patients made the call during a recent tour by journalists to the health facility.
The tour was meant to give the media an insight into the hospital’s daily operations.
During the tour, many patients complained about nurses who always dragged their feet when it came to attending to them. They said the nurses took their times even when attending to critically ill patients.
On patient said they arrived at QMMH as early as 5am to ensure they would be quickly attended but they were only served starting at 9am which was an hour later than the expected time.
“It is very frustrating for us when nurses delay to serve us especially as we come to the hospital to get services not to wine around,” the patient said.
“When we come here we have to make peace with the fact that we are going to stay here for the whole day.
“Sometimes you will see a nurse leaving the room for minutes without explaining where they are going while we sit on the chairs and wait for them. Sometimes we see some late arrivals being attended to earlier than us and other critically ill patients who would have come earlier.
“The government did a good thing in establishing this hospital. The building and the equipment are up to standard but the only thing left is for services to improve.”
In response QMMH General Manager, Mozondase Mohapi, said at that although management was committed to efficient service delivery, they were overwhelmed by the volume of patients as they worked both as an out patients department and as a referral centre.
“I will not deny that we have been having challenges that we are currently trying to solve. We want Basotho to trust us because we can provide best services for them.
“Sometimes when there is negative talk about QMMH, it becomes sad and unfair on the patients. It is time we worked on improving our communication channels to avoid such incidences that are causing challenges,” Ms Mohapi said.