Omusati clinic open once a week

OKATSEIDHIPLACIDO HILUKILWA

A clinic that is only open for a few hours once a week seems unthinkable, but that is the situation at Okatseidhi village in the Tsandi constituency of the Omusati Region.
The Okatseidhi clinic only tends to patients for a few hours every Wednesday and villagers are accusing the Ministry of Health and Social Services of neglecting its duties by failing to appoint a permanent nurse to provide health care to the community.
It is said that the nurse who was deployed to this 23-year-old clinic retired last year and no replacement was appointed.
"Older nurses refuse to be deployed far away from their families and younger nurses do not want to work in the undeveloped rural areas. That is the dilemma," said a health ministry employee who preferred to remain anonymous.
A nurse is driven from Tsandi to Okatseidhi every Wednesday.
"Opening a clinic once a week is already bad enough, but to add insult to injury, the nurse arrives too late, sometimes in the afternoons," said Okatseidhi Primary School principal Salomo Moses.
When Namibian Sun arrived at Okatseidhi at 10:30 on Wednesday, the nurse was not yet there, but there were no patients either.
"People now know that the nurse never comes on time. They will start arriving at about 12:00 because that is the time the nurse normally arrives and stays until 18:00," Moses said.
Residents expressed sympathy with the lone nurse, saying she works very hard to treat the seriously ill, tend to pregnant women, dress days-old wounds, immunise children, advise on family planning and also serve as pharmacist - all in the space of a few hours.
"A clinic that is open once a week is unheard of. Government must take the necessary steps very urgently," said Okatseidhi villager Primus Josef.
"I think the minister of health needs to pay us a visit because the councillor already knows about our problem, yet he is doing nothing," he said.
Another resident, Aina Shigwedha, said the community has written letters of complaint to the constituency councillor and to the regional governor but received no response.
"No one seems to care about us," said Bartholomew Shomeya, a member of the Clinic Committee.
"We are considered 'bush people' and are expected to cure our ailments using herbs only. It is only because of God's providence that this community is not dying off," he said.
Shomeya said he uses his own car to transport sick people to the Onamandongo clinic and Tsandi hospital, 32 km and 54 km away respectively.
"I feel very sad but I cannot refuse to provide assistance to those who come to me, sometimes in the dead of the night," he said.
Community members are urging the ministry to urgently appoint a nurse, "otherwise curable illnesses would become chronic diseases because of lack of treatment".
Okatseidhi village headman Amon Shilemba said the clinic was built to serve thousands of people from several villages, as well as herders from cattle posts in the area.
"This clinic has now become useless. A person who is stung by a scorpion or bitten by a snake on Monday cannot wait until Wednesday when the nurse turns up. Sometimes there is no transport or people have no money to pay for transport to Tsandi ... we are really suffering," he said.
Approached for comment, Omusati's regional health director William Kapenambili referred Namibian Sun to the principal medical officer at Tsandi hospital, who in turn refused to speak to the media.
When contacted for comment, Health Permanent Secretary Andrew Ndishishi said the ministry was aware of the situation, the only problem being the shortage of qualified nurses who are willing to be posted to remote rural clinics.
He said the ministry is looking for nurses in and outside Namibia and will make a permanent appointment as soon as they find a nurse who is willing to fill the post at Okatseidhi.
Meanwhile, villagers are also complaining about a lack of cellphone coverage and the absence of access roads to link the school, the clinic and the police substation to the Iitananga-Omakange road. "During the rainy season this village is totally cut off. We need a proper road," headman Shilemba said.