Makgato vows to improve health services
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Wednesday May 6, 2015 15:51
Speaking at a press briefing on an update of the ministry performance in Gaborone yesterday, Makgato said her ministry has identified its achievements, challenges and has came up with new ways and strategies that would ensure that Batswana get improved health services.
She gave highlights on the MoH major achievements, challenges and what it was doing to address them and reshape Botswana’s Health Care System.
“My ministry continues to make progress towards achievement of the health related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and has recorded significant performance on the following; under five mortality rate has reduced from 76/1000 in 2008 to 28/1000,” she said.
“This is attributed to, the increased community uptake of high impact interventions and immunisation coverage, introduction of new vaccines into the national immunisation schedule namely: Pentavalent vaccine, introduction of second dose of Measles vaccine for children at 18 months. Pneumococcal vaccine, Rotavirus vaccine, Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine (HPV) for girls aged 9 to 13 towards prevention of cervical cancer.”
She said that maternal mortality reduced from 189/1000 in 2008 to 134/1000, which was attributed to some of the establishment of quality improvement project for maternal health and increased training of health care workers on emergency obstetric training.
Makgatho added that excellent and proactive management of HIV/AIDS, which led to the reduction of HIV incidence from one point five percent in 2010 to about one point four percent in 2013, was also commendable.
She explained that scaling up national HIV response efforts had also borne good results with 96 percent Prevention from Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT) uptake, where the rate was one point three percent lower than the global target of five percent.
She added that 94 percent (247,157) eligible patients were enrolled on ARV treatment. “One of our major achievements is the introduction of community tuberculosis care with current coverage of 76 percent, and utilisation of more rapid diagnostic technology for HIV and TB including drug resistant forms such as Gene Xpert has led to the reduction of TB notification rates. We have also implemented the Malaria Elimination Strategy, which has resulted in a significant decline in the number of malaria cases over the years,” she announced.
Malaria cases had dramatically declined from 13.5 percent in 2006 to less than one percent in 2014, she said.
The minister said some efforts to improve provision of quality of services were currently ongoing. These services are accreditation programme against COHSASA standards, has been rolled out to 16 facilities, which are already showing tremendous improvements. “To date, Mahalapye District and Scottish Livingstone hospitals have achieved entry level of recognition and Nyangabgwe Hospital received laboratory accreditation. These accreditations are recognised worldwide,” she said. She said they developed national health quality standards (hospitals, clinics, mortuary/autopsy, environmental health services, emergency medical services), which put more emphasis on patient safety, patient experience and clinical effectiveness. She said MoH has extended specialised services across the country’s medical facilities including the remote areas.
However, Makgato also explained that despite their tremendous achievements, MoH still faces challenges.
“I must admit that we are also experiencing some challenges. The major ones being the rise in non-communicable conditions, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Ownership by public on taking health as their responsibility is still lacking as demonstrated by low uptake of some of the health programmes such as SMC, condom use, HIV testing and poor health seeking behaviours, emerging outbreaks such as Ebola and declining donor funds,” she said.
Makgatho added that to find solutions to the existing challenges, the ministry held a leadership summit last month, and came up with a clear plan of action plan. The road map addresses the challenges with the aim to transform Botswana’s healthcare system.