Corruption in Miss-management in Health

Nyane Letsie, the general director of health care services at the Ministry of Health, has been accused of mismanagement and corruption once again.

Dr. Letsie has been criticized by certain health workers of failing to carry out the ministry's responsibility of delivering high-quality health care to the population.

Some ministry employees, speaking on the condition of anonymity, chastised her for allegedly refusing to overhaul the agency's Credentials Committee.

The Committee is in charge of evaluating and monitoring the responsibilities and performance of the ministry's consultant medical professionals.

Employees claimed that some of the experts lacked the necessary qualifications and underperformed.

Dr. Letsie has also been chastised for failing to move doctors from Queen II Medical Center to other districts, despite an acute lack of doctors in those areas.

After being dismantled to allow for new structures, the health center is being reconstructed. It had been around for over a century.

Employees claimed that Dr. Letsie had been fired multiple times but always returned with "strange" justifications.

She was first banned in 2018 following claims that she transported an unworthy cancer and kidney sufferer to India for treatment.

Dr. Letsie attempted to sue the state over the detention but was unsuccessful. Despite her defeat, she was later restored by Nkaku Kabi, the then-Health Minister, who indicated that he wanted to work alongside her.

On July 28, 2020, Dr. Letsie was suspended once more, this time for allegedly underperforming her duties on a regular and purposeful basis.

According to the staff, the director general's recent recall from suspension is due to her claimed good relations with Health Minister Semano Sekatle's family.

"She owes her last comeback to the health minister." There's no sentencing committee before she was called back to work.

"If she is clean and does her responsibilities well, she cannot be banned 4 times in four years," one colleague remarked on the requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.

When asked to respond yesterday, Mr Sekatle was enraged by the staff' claims that he assisted Dr Letsie in returning to work.

He told the reporter to get out of his family's business.

"Return to the source of the information. I don't have time to remark on such trivial matters "Mr. Sekatle explained.

Employees also stated that one of the senior executives had asked Dr Letsie to evaluate the way things were run in the government in order to improve health system, but she had refused.

One of the employees remarked, "We are aware that she was recommended to examine the Credentials Committee and move a few of the physicians who work in Queen II to overcrowded health institutions, but she has not done so."

"The consulting doctors, on the other hand, do shoddy work. They run successful private clinics, leaving patients who seek care at public institutions to suffer from the regular absences from work."

According to another employee, the ministry spends over M600,000 per year on one consultant doctor, yet they spend the most of their time going their own private clinics.

Some even recommended patients from medical centers to their private practices in order to increase their profits.

They further claimed that the Credentials Committee was underperforming because the director general hand-picked its members.

"Since the restoration of Queen II began, several of the doctors have not been used. Their services would be useful in other understaffed districts in Leribe, such as Mafeteng & Motebang "Employees stated.

"Because in-patient as well as other facilities such as diagnostic, laboratory, and radiography are not available at Queen II Hospital, the doctors there are not being utilized."

Dr. Letsie, when approached for comments this week, denied the charges.

Dr. James Fan, the previous director of clinical services, was to fault. Dr. Letsie accused Dr. Fan of confusing the consultants and intimidating them.

"He's a liar. Dr. Fan is the person who provided you with this information. I can tell he's saying something like this, and it's not true. The consultants continue to work according to their schedules and circulate between districts. I may even say that they are educating young doctors there "she stated

She went on to say that the health ministry's leadership had decided to fire Dr. Fan after losing consultants due to his alleged bad behavior.

"He was on probation in that role since he was chosen because he's the best qualified with a PhD degree among the candidates at the time," Dr Letsie explained.

"Some of the consultants were hounded by Dr Fan, who accused them of not working. One of the experts has opted not to extend his contract due of him, which is unfortunate. We fired him due to his misbehavior and insubordination."

Dr. Letsie also denied staffers' reports that her previous ban was overturned without a hearing.

"What occurred was that the ministry's witness failed to show up on the day of the hearing, and it was decided there was no reason to investigate. That's how I got back to work "she clarified

Mr. Sekatle, the Health Minister, was not connected to her in any way, according to the director general, and he had nothing to with her return to the country.

Dr. Fan, for one, refuted the secretary general's claim that he was fired as head of clinical services owing to ineptitude.

He also denied disclosing information to third parties.

"What happened was that I submitted a letter to the director general proposing ways for the ministry to improve the country's health care system." "I truly don't know who leaked it because it was discussed with other high officials within the government," Dr. Fan stated.

He claimed that he had requested that specialists from Queen II be transferred to other hospitals, but that Dr Letsie had refused.

"Dr. Letsie must be forthright about why she dismissed me from my position. She fired me since I tried to persuade her to remedy the situation.