Otjiwarongo doctors ‘drained’, only 8 of 40 positions filled

Doctors at Otjiwarongo State Hospital are feeling the physical and emotional strain of a severe staffing shortage, with medical staff juggling different departments, long patient queues and the frustration of people who sometimes wait hours for treatment.

A doctor familiar with operations at the hospital told Namibian Sun last week that the problem was not necessarily the number of patients seeking treatment but the limited number of doctors available to attend to them.

“The influx of patients is not the problem, but the shortage,” the doctor said on condition of not being named, fearing that speaking about their working conditions could jeapordise their job.

His worry about a critical understaffing problem is supported by the Otjozondjupa Regional Council's 2025/26 recent report, which lists 40 doctors as the staffing requirement for Otjiwarongo State Hospital, while the facility currently only employs eight.

The doctor said the shortage forces staff to cover several areas, including casualty, theatre, the outpatient department (OPD) and hospital wards in a single day or week.

“Casualty, I feel like it's always busy, and their doctors are very few. Maybe sometimes you only find maybe two doctors,” the source said.

A doctor working in the OPD could see around 40 patients in a day while also being required to attend to patients admitted to wards, according to the source.

Patients arriving in the morning sometimes wait until late afternoon to be seen, the doctor added.

The workload has become exhausting and emotionally draining, the source said, particularly when medical staff move between different responsibilities and remain on standby.

“It is very draining,” the doctor said.

In addition to the debilitating workload, doctors and nursing staff have to deal with the subsequent frustration and criticism of patients, who spend hours waiting for treatment. Many then accuse staff of not doing their jobs.

“Imagine working with so many different personalities, and someone comes screaming at you. Won't you burst out of character?” the source said.

“It is tough, but at the same time one can't come publicly out and say these things because we risk losing our jobs,” the doctor said.

The hospital could benefit from the placement of intern doctors, with the source saying interns were more commonly seen at hospitals in Windhoek, Onandjokwe and Rundu.

“It would be nice if we could get at least some intern doctors here."

Unfunded positions

Otjozondjupa regional health director Gebhardo Timotheus told Namibian Sun on Thursday that the gap between the hospital's staffing establishment and its current number of doctors could not simply be viewed as 32 funded vacancies.

He said positions existed on the staffing establishment but could not be advertised or filled if funding was not available.

“Those positions that we are referring to, yes, it's true, they are there. But there are no funds. They are not funded. That's why we cannot advertise them. We have no funds,” Timotheus said.

He said all funded medical officer positions in the region that were currently vacant had been advertised.

A recent recruitment advert lists 15 medical officer posts across Otjozondjupa, including two in Otjiwarongo, with applications closing on 20 September.

Timotheus said there were no funded positions in the region that were deliberately being left unfilled

He said the shortage was not unique to Otjiwarongo but affects health facilities across the region.

Otjiwarongo State Hospital is centrally located and serves a larger population than some other district hospitals, he said, but remains a district hospital.

The hospital's eight doctors therefore continue to operate against an establishment requiring 40, while recruitment remains dependent on the funding made available for posts.

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