Health ministry requests billions for NDP 11 projects
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday September 4, 2020 16:43
Briefing Parliament on Tuesday, Minister Dr Edwin Dikoloti said the proposals were to be implemented by the Ministry during the period under consideration.
Dr Dikoloti also said some projects were not embarked upon as initially planned mainly due to insufficient funds and certain capacity constraints experienced in both the public and private sectors.
For example, “e-Health programme has the potential to improve access to healthcare, better patient outcomes, customer satisfaction, access to health information as well as monitoring and evaluation; its implementation has been delayed.
To correct that, my ministry has since prioritised it after a successful review and launch of the e-Health Strategy (2020-2024). So far, work has begun to replace the paper-based medical patient cards with an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system,” he said.
He added: “The EHR intended to provide real-time access to health services using a unique identifier across the entire health sector.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness has engaged the Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI) to facilitate the project and preparation of the statement for user requirement is at an advanced stage”.
He further told Parliament that the development of the Quality Information Management System (QIMS) is another project that started at the beginning of NDP 11.
He said the system would be used to assess and monitor performance of health facilities to ensure compliance to health standards. In addition, the Minister said the main objective of the programme in the primary healthcare was to upgrade and/or construct health facilities from either health posts to clinics without maternity wing or clinics without a maternity wing, to those with a maternity sections.
Moreover, the plan was to upgrade some clinics to a Primary Hospital level one (1) category and the construction of staff houses constituted a major component of this programme.
Still on the matter, he said some projects were completed during the first half of NDP 11. 51 out of 126 staff houses are complete for Kgalagadi, Greater Francistown, Tutume, Mabutsane and Bobirwa while the rest are still at various stages of construction ranging from 20% to 95%.
He also revealed that a total of seven out of 25 staff houses in Kweneng were completed and handed over during the first half of NDP 11, while the remaining 18 are still under construction.
Another 17 staff houses were completed in Lobatse while 18 staff houses in Maun, Shorobe and Makalamabedi are 92% complete. Meanwhile, the eight houses at Tsau and Sehithwa are at tender stage.
“The construction of 70-bed capacity primary hospitals is ongoing in Shakawe and Moshupa with progress levels at 95% and 25%, respectively.
There are 69 staff housing units for Moshupa Hospital under construction at 15% progress while the upgrading of Tutume and Gumare Primary Hospitals is at design stage’’, he said.
He said during the first half of the plan, a total of 11 vehicles were procured for use by Health Inspectorate and Public Health Divisions for their out-reach programmes.