Speaking at a press briefing held this week, deputy permanent secretary (health services) Dr Kolaatamo Malefho said that the refurbishment of old hospitals is a high priority concern for his ministry, hence they want to enlist the private sector's help.
"A call has been made for expressions of interest from the private sector for leasing proposals for the use of these old hospitals. We have received some promising proposals from several private sector players in health care and we are in the process of evaluating them for viability and adoption," he said.
Dr Malefho said that he was confident that full realisation of their goals to use health facilities for health care delivery would be done efficiently.
He also revealed that they have evaluated the needs of their health facilities in terms of refurbishment. He said that the exercise would run from this year right to next year.
"We will ensure that we scale up security against vandalism at these facilities by engaging private security providers to bolster our own existing internal arrangements.
These new security arrangements will be rolled in April 2009," he said.
He also informed his audience that they are at an advanced stage of utilising information technologies to make better health care delivery services. So far, he said, tele-radiology between Princess Marina and Gantsi hospitals is now operational. They are in the process of implementing telemedicine services between Nyangabwe Hospital and India. It is hoped that this project will link Botswana health care delivery system to international health providers.
The days for long waiting times for basic specialist care, according to the deputy permanent secretary, are over. He said that outpatient services, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology and pediatrics would no longer have long waiting times. He said his ministry has procured specialist services from South Africa.
"Recently, a team of doctors from South Africa came over here for three days to operate on patients needing either knee or hip replacement. A total of 11 patients were operated during the three-day visit. In addition, we have embarked on a call for expressions of interest from the private sector to address this chronic service gap. A total of 76 individual specialists and organisations within Botswana have so far headed our call," he said.
The utilisation of domestic specialist medical services would result in sizeable cost savings through the elimination of travel and lodging costs associated with the overall handling of patients that "we refer to South Africa," he said.
Concerning malaria, he said that Botswana has been able to achieve an average of over 90 percent for most of antigens that are given to under five-year-olds.
This year, the ministry will be introducing the Haemophilus Influenza type B (HIB) vaccine into the vaccine schedule this year. "We have developed an Accelerated Child Survival and Development (ACSD) strategy. We have also launched the Interagency Coordinating Committee, which will facilitate child survival and development interventions in this country as well as implementation of the ACSD.
Dr Malefho says that anti-retroviral treatment is being rolled out to local clinics and that at the moment, a total of 112 clinics are offering ARV treatment.
The Prevention of Mother To Child Programme (PMTCT) has reduced transmission rates of HIV from four to two percent, he said.
To eliminate pediatric AIDS, the ministry will be piloting provision of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy HAART) to all HIV positive pregnant women irregardless of their CD4 count. This, he said, will be done with the aim of reducing transmission rate to one percent.
"Since HIV prevention will be a major focus for NDP 10, the ministry will be implementing safe male circumcision as an additional strategy for HIV prevention in the next financial year. This strategy has been found to reduce HIV in men by 50-60 percent," he announced.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Epharium Keoreng
Quelle/Source: Mmegi Online, 09.04.2009
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