Gov’t funded Sir Ketumile hospital to charge for services
Mompati Tlhankane | Monday August 29, 2022 06:27
Clients will have to pay from their pockets, medical aid or on certain instances paid for by the government. Licensed as a private hospital to offer health care services, SKMTH will give access primarily through referrals from both private and public health facilities and medical practitioners.
Briefing the media about the commissioning of SKMTH, board chairperson, Basimane Bogopa said despite that, nobody will be shut out and that everyone will be assisted but not like at a normal hospital.
He said emergencies like accidents will be attended to and walk-ins will be guided accordingly. On the issue of SKMTH being a private hospital, Bogopa clarified that the hospital has not been privatised though it will operate as a private institution. “SKMTH is a company limited by guarantee wholly owned by the government of Botswana.
The governance structures of the hospital are such that the operations of the company are overseen by a board of directors comprising 10 directors. The directors comprise a multidisciplinary team with vast experience in key areas, both in the private and public sector to allow for adequate oversight over the institution,” he revealed.
Privatisation is defined as transfer of ownership, property or business from the government to the private sector. The government ceases to be the owner of the entity or business. Although people will be paying for health services, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Grace Muzila said SKMTH will continue to get subventions from the government. She said the plan going forward is to reduce the financial assistance and eventually have the hospital self-sustained. She said the hospital recently received about P200 million from the government and that budget is set to increase in the next financial year because they want quality. Muzila said the hospital is now private because they want to generate revenue and cease dependency on government for subventions.
Commissioning Manager, Dr Ishmael Makone also pointed out that SKMTH is not for profit although it will run under commercially driven principles. Dr Makone also said the prioritisation of services to be introduced in SKMTH was made taking into account the challenges the health sector is currently facing being the high cost of services and their scarcity on the market. He said other factors considered in introducing services at SKMTH include capacity to generate revenue for SKMTH hence potential for self-sustenance.
Even though people will be paying for services, they will be getting world class services from SKMTH. Available services so far are general radiography ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) scan fluoroscopy, mammography, angiography, and interventional radiology, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and bone mineral densitometry. The vision of SKMTH is to be the industry standard of excellence in the provision of healthcare services, research and teaching to improve health outcomes. The facility was conceived in the 1980s and was built following the recommendations from the Presidential Task Force of 1989 comprising of the then Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Education (MOE) and University of Botswana (UB).
The task force was convened to address the issues of shortage of healthcare professionals in Botswana and to recommend remedial measures. This resulted in the construction of the facility, which started in 2010 and was completed in 2014. In 2015 the Hospital was positioned as a quaternary facility at the Apex of the healthcare hierarchical system in Botswana. The SKMTH was initially called Botswana University Hospital, actually before then it was referred to as the Academic Teaching Hospital. However, in 2018 the Hospital was renamed as Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital after the late former president. The Hospital was conceptualised as a government’s commitment to providing access to quality medical education, research and clinical services. SKMTH is a 450-bed hospital and is the first quaternary hospital in Botswana, which will operate at the apex of Botswana’s public health system. Its mandate is to provide medical education, research and clinical care.
The commissioning of the hospital started in 2016 following the appointment of a Transition Team, which transformed into the Commissioning Team in 2018 following the appointment of a Commissioning Manager. This resulted in categorisation of the introduction of services into four phases, the one being high priority areas for the country. The commissioning exercise is anticipated to take at least four-five years. The first phase is set to start as the hospital has now been licensed to offer health care services.
The first service to be opened is the state-of-the-art Radiology Department on September 1, 2022. The SKMTH Radiology Department will provide medical imaging services for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes for all inpatients and outpatients.