Health Ministry To Outsource Services
Pini Bothoko | Monday May 27, 2019 13:13
Health Minister, Dr Alfred Madigele has explained that it is time for transformation in health institutions with a view to safe guarding people’s lives.
He said the focus would be to provide quality health services more especially in their hospitals. The disclosure follows an enquiry by The Monitor into the Ministry’s move to outsource some services to private hospitals. Madigele revealed that they resolved to outsource services that government health institutions fail to provide in line with their mandate to provide quality heath service. He stated that currently they are outsourcing some services to Bokamoso and Gaborone private hospitals. Over the years the Ministry has been accused of failure to uphold its core mandate and thereby compromising the health care system.
Madigele stated that his Ministry has established new ways and strategies that would ensure that Batswana get improved health services.
“We cannot dispute that we have of recent been failing to provide some services hence moved swiftly to outsource from private hospitals. Since January the Computed Tomography (CT) syringe pump has not been functional and we have been outsourcing this service from private hospitals,” Madigele said. “We do buy services from private hospitals depending on medical conditions of patients. Batswana should appreciate this move because there is nothing wrong with it. This is how the economy works, we are providing them with business opportunities.” He stated that outsourcing services to private hospitals or companies also contributes to employment creation as such entities hire Batswana that the government is struggling to employ. Regarding challenges, he said lack of expertise to repair most of their equipment was a major setback. There are plans to turn around the fortune of the Ministry though. These would entail renting out some of their machinery and hospital space to private health personnel to procure services from them. “If we do so such personnel will make sure that those machines are fully operational at all times, always repair them and make sure people are provided with services at all times,” Madigele revealed. “We have broilers but we do not have expertise to repair them. Our MRI at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital, the only machine in government sector is not working. We have been buying its service from Bokamoso and Gaborone private hospitals.”
He pointed out that a tender has been awarded and a gynecologist has been engaged to offer service at Princess Marina Hospital (PMH) because they have been struggling for some time without the service. “We also want to engage in drug service in order to speed and improve dispensing of drugs in our hospitals. However, vital drugs such as ARVs, medication for High Blood Pressure, Diabetes we make sure that they are available in our institutions. This also applies to essential drugs in the form of painkillers,” he said.
He conceded that government health facilities have been faced with shortage of necessary drugs since they were not procured on time in the last financial year.
For his part, PMH’s chief public relations and communication officer, Donnell Kutlapye highlighted a number of services they have outsourced over time. These include Ophthalmology, Neurosurgery and Cardiac Surgery and Radiation as well as spine cases amongst others. Kutlapye hailed outsourcing saying it has brought positive results. “Imagine what would happened if we didn’t refer patients that needed certain specialties that we do not have in government facilities. Patients would be suffering,” he said.
“That is why we are doing all we can to improve access of quality health services in Botswana.”