Teaching hospital postpones opening
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday April 26, 2019 12:47
According to the teaching hospital’s communications and public relations manager, Thato Moruti, the Board and management of the teaching hospital decided to postpone the opening after reviewing numerous project quality and service imperatives.
He stated that the new dates of the opening would be communicated at a later date. “The hospital guarantees the public and valued stakeholders our major focus which is to ensure the highest level of care and diligence in providing service to the public as signified by our ‘commitment to excellence’ mantra.
The commissioning team is working round the clock to make sure necessary mitigation plans are in place for a speedy opening. We will continue to deliver updates through different media platforms to inform valued stakeholders and the public of current developments,” he noted.
He pointed out that SKMTH operates as a public company whose mission is to provide reliable, high quality medical education, research and clinical services at a quaternary level to all people of Botswana and maintaining leadership by providing quality service, offering innovative new services to clients and striving to be up-to-date with world class technology.
SKMTH will be a phased approach commencing with some services that include paediatric oncology, internal medicine, rheumatology and endocrinology, diagnostic radiology, laboratory services and pharmacy.
A phased commissioning of SKMTH will reduce over-dependence on South Africa (SA) for referrals, reduce costs and also institutionalise provision of super services within Botswana.
The hospital, it is expected, will save the government millions of pula, and relieve pressure from Botswana’s major public health care providers, notably Princess Marina Hospital (PMH) and Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital.
The hospital will also come as competition for private hospitals such as Bokamoso Private Hospital and Gaborone Private Hospital. Most of these cases have been referred across borders.
Reasons to transfer patients to private facilities outside borders ranged from complicated cases and lack of proper equipment and infrastructure in the local hospitals. Both PMH and Nyangabgwe are said to be lacking capacity in the three components to do the work with diligence.
Additionally, SKMTH will train and produce international standard healthcare professionals for the entire national healthcare system, and beyond. The clinic will also facilitate the development of a Fellowship Programme between the University of Botswana and the Global Hope Programme.
The intention of the fellowship is to increase production of medical scholars.