The current
Global Fund quarterly incentives payments for
health staff in all government and church
hospitals in Lesotho motivated and encouraged
hospital staff to commit and dedicate to their
work despite the influx of patients due to HIV
and AIDS and expose to high risk of
transmittable diseases such as MDR TB.
These sentiments were echoed by hospital staff
and management during incentives, manpower and
medical equipments verification in government
and church hospitals conducted by the Global
Fund Coordinating Unit (GFCU) of the Ministry of
Finance and Development Planning (MOFD) on
February 23 – 26, 2009.
The verification was conducted at hospitals in
Thaba Tseka, Botha Bothe, Berea, Mafeteng,
Mohale’s hoek and Maseru districts. During
verification, hospital matrons indicated that
the incentives payment increased morale among
health staff especially at this time of HIV and
AIDS where the influx of patients is high that
contribute to increased work.
Hospital management commended Global Fund
incentives saying they improved service delivery
especially in public hospitals at a time when
the burden of work is high.
One of the Laboratory technician receiving
incentives at St James hospital Mr. Noosi Mona
indicated that the incentives motivated him to
work harder even if it is in small amount. “The
influx of patients in our hospital increased the
work burden in all departments including
laboratory. Therefore sometimes we are compelled
to work after hours (4.30) but we would not mind
because we consider these incentives as our
overtime payments. We also refer to it as a risk
allowance especially when you look the kind of
work and the danger that we are exposed to HIV
positive blood and other sicknesses specimens.”
“I use my incentives to refund my education loan
to National manpower secretariat so that I can
receive new education bursary as I am planning
to further my studies soon,” said Mona.
Another Laboratory technologist in Paray
hospital Mr. Napo Phosi commended the
procurement of medical equipment for laboratory
saying it contributed in improving quality of
services to the accepted international health
accreditation standards especially in regards to
the laboratory equipments.
He said in their laboratory among the equipment
purchased are laboratory reagents for chemistry
that are used to test the function of liver and
kidney among HIV patients before are enrolled to
AIDS treatment drugs. The liver and kidney are
then tested regularly to see if they respond
positively to the described treatment without
any damage to these important organs.
“We always have enough stock of reagents in our
laboratory unlike in the past where the stock
run out frequently that hindered our work and
caused inconveniences to patients,” he said.
The availability of medical facilities in
hospitals motivates staff to work harder and
even after hours because everything that they
need for their work is now available to them.
The Superintendent of Ntsekhe hospital in
Mohale’s hoek Dr. Mnyahuli Ngoy thanked
Government and Global Fund for incentives saying
it helps staff in different ways since their
salaries are not enough to cover all their needs
therefore any additional money assist them in
supporting their families’ needs.
“The incentives
motivates us to take good care of patients
including those with HIV as long as we know that
there is some one who recognise our work and
care about our welfare,” he added.
The Global Fund
Round 5 focus mainly on HIV and AIDS by
deploying additional health staff in hospitals
countrywide, empower them with training and
provide incentives in order to improve health
service delivery.
Among the health
care workers engaged under this round who are
fully paid their salaries are 15 nurse
clinicians, 36 counsellors and 9 drivers.
Meanwhile 1,437 hospital base health staff are
being provided with incentives and these include
90 laboratory technologists, 68 pharmacists, 54
medical doctors, 1216 nurses and 8 district HIV
and AIDS officers.
At community
level 1,028 community health workers and 98 lay
counsellors have received their incentives to
encourage and motivate them with their good
volunteered work of caring and supporting the
sick at community level.
Still under
Round 5, the medical equipment for laboratories,
Antiretroviral centers and HIV testing centers
were procured to improve services delivery. This
fund further assisted in construction of ART
centers in Botha Bothe and Paray
hospital in Thaba Tseka as well as purchased
vehicles for assisting in HIV and AIDS
coordination in all districts.
The Global Fund
Round 5 composed of the total approved budget of
US$10,013,382 which is equal to M75,100,365 and
is scheduled to take five years from 2006 to
2011. The overall performance of this grant
since 2006 has been excellent with recent rating
of A1 for both programmatic achievements and
financial managements combined.
Caption:
A nurse at OPD takes BP from patient. |
