EDITORIAL: Katutura hospital’s Mickey Mouse business
In June, politicians, like bees on honey, descended on the Katutura State Hospital to try and extinguish public anger emanating from former mayor Job Amupanda’s exposure of mice scampering around wards as well as the general dilapidation of the facility.
Amupanda was not the first to expose the literal rot at the hospital, but perhaps his public standing smoked his political opponents out of their cocoons to stage a flash-in-the-pan public relations exercise and quieten the angry voices.
The ink has barely dried on headlines quoting government officials that efforts were underway to stop the marauding mischief of mice at the Katutura hospital, only for the horror tape to replay itself.
Not even the fact that President Hage Geingob visited the hospital in 2020, ironically also after photos depicting its unhygienic conditions surfaced, has made any difference to the sad situation.
At the time, the president said renovations would lead to improvements at the hospital. As matters stand, his promise has yet to come to pass as patients continue to wine and dine with herds of mice – who also seek refuge in their blankets in the dead of night.
If visits to the hospital by Geingob and health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula cannot remedy the situation, it is hard to think of anyone else who could rectify it. As of now, patients remain sacrificed at the altar of constant political lies and incompetence.
Amupanda was not the first to expose the literal rot at the hospital, but perhaps his public standing smoked his political opponents out of their cocoons to stage a flash-in-the-pan public relations exercise and quieten the angry voices.
The ink has barely dried on headlines quoting government officials that efforts were underway to stop the marauding mischief of mice at the Katutura hospital, only for the horror tape to replay itself.
Not even the fact that President Hage Geingob visited the hospital in 2020, ironically also after photos depicting its unhygienic conditions surfaced, has made any difference to the sad situation.
At the time, the president said renovations would lead to improvements at the hospital. As matters stand, his promise has yet to come to pass as patients continue to wine and dine with herds of mice – who also seek refuge in their blankets in the dead of night.
If visits to the hospital by Geingob and health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula cannot remedy the situation, it is hard to think of anyone else who could rectify it. As of now, patients remain sacrificed at the altar of constant political lies and incompetence.
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Namibian Sun
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