By Feni Hiveluah
The amputation of a six-year-old boy’s arm after complications reportedly linked to a tight cast has poked holes in Namibia’s public healthcare system, triggering calls for Parliament and the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MHSS) to stop measuring success by the number of hospitals and clinics built and start measuring whether patients are actually safe inside them.
Politicians and activists have called for the country to move beyond public health discussions and infrastructure development and begin holding the healthcare system accountable for patient outcomes.
Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) vice president Kalimbo Iipumbu said expanding clinics, hospitals and other health infrastructure was important, but warned that access without quality care was not healthcare.
“It is merely physical availability,” Iipumbu said.
“A hospital bed means little if clinical standards are not upheld on the ward floor. Parliament must move beyond counting buildings and begin measuring outcomes.”
His comments follow reports that the six-year-old boy had his arm amputated after a tight cast allegedly caused the limb to bleed.
The incident, which reportedly occurred in April, has sparked public outrage and raised questions about the monitoring of patients after treatment.
Iipumbu said the NEFF would push for a performance accountability framework that measures preventable complications, surgical and procedural safety, patient mortality and morbidity, compliance with clinical protocols, response times to adverse events, staff competency and continuing professional development.
He said these indicators should be presented to Parliament annually, with poorly performing facilities subjected to targeted intervention plans.
“The issue before us is not simply whether a cast was applied incorrectly, but whether protocols for post-casting monitoring, circulation checks, pain escalation and emergency intervention were properly followed,” he said.
Iipumbu urged Parliament to demand a full incident report from the ministry, review casting and orthopaedic emergency protocols at regional hospitals, and audit staffing levels, supervision structures and response times to medical complications.
He also called for the establishment of a national patient safety reporting system.
“Oversight cannot be reactive only after a child loses a limb. It must be preventive, continuous and evidence-based,” Iipumbu said.
He further criticised the millions of Namibian dollars paid by the State in medical negligence settlements, arguing that compensation alone did not address the systemic failures that caused the claims.
He said every settlement paid by the State should automatically trigger a root-cause investigation and a mandatory corrective action plan.
“Taxpayers are effectively paying twice: first for the health service, and then again for the harm caused by failures within that service.
Parliament can intervene through the budget and appropriations process,” he said.
Iipumbu said the incident should become a turning point for public healthcare accountability in Namibia.
He urged Parliament to use its oversight powers, budget authority and legislative mandate to ensure that patient safety was not merely an aspiration on paper, but a reality in every ward, clinic and regional hospital.
“The loss suffered by this child and his family can never be fully reversed. However, the greatest injustice would be for the nation to treat this as another headline that fades without structural reform,” he said.
“We owe it to every patient who walks into a state clinic believing that the system will protect them, not permanently harm them.”
Community activist Shaun Gariseb, speaking on the same platform, called on Health Minister Esperance Luvindao to engage more directly with vulnerable communities and visit areas such as Otjiwarongo and Vergenoeg, where he said residents could wait up to three days for an ambulance.
Gariseb urged the minister to focus on local solutions and “forget those Instagram things” that, he said, did not reflect the reality on the ground.
“Go to Nkurenkuru, hear the people yourself and understand the cries of the people. We are now aware that all civil servants must use public healthcare. I hope this improves service genuinely, even in remote areas. Remember, in some remote areas there are no civil servants,” he said.
Gariseb said the boy’s case was only one of many incidents in which families had either sought help from activists or remained silent because they lacked the resources and knowledge to challenge institutions.
He referred to the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), which provides pro bono legal services, and said a lack of awareness often prevented affected families from pursuing justice.
He said activists had increasingly become the voice of communities that were unable to fight institutions on their own.
“Exposing the struggles of ordinary residents is needed so that institutions are called to order,” Gariseb said.
Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) shadow minister of health Bonny Susiku said Parliament would need to enact new laws, amend existing legislation and intervene through the budget process to ensure ordinary, low-income citizens could access care at regional hospitals and report suspected clinical negligence quickly and directly.
She said Parliament needed to maintain an accountability framework in which both access and quality were mandatory.
“That means Parliament must be in a position to enforce that no new facility or service can be opened unless it meets the minimum clinical safety standards,” Susiku said.
She said that while Parliament could not redirect money after a court settlement had been paid, it could change budget rules and oversight mechanisms to make negligence costly for systems while making prevention a priority.
Susiku said Parliament should focus on prevention, clinical governance and patient safety legislation.
Meanwhile, the MHSS said it had been made aware of the incident through the regional health director.
Ministry spokesperson Walters Kamaya said it had not yet been verified that the child’s amputation was caused by the initial treatment he received at the Otjiwarongo State Hospital.
“Only the investigation process can confirm and review what transpired, and at this stage the investigation is ongoing. The MHSS will be in a better position to pronounce itself when the investigation is completed,” Kamaya said.
