Palliative care takes root in Botswana- Dr Mbangtang

Barati Mathambo
Correspondent | Thursday June 27, 2013 00:00

Speaking on Tuesday, Mbangtang also said palliative care dates back to 1995 when CHBC was established in response to the HIV/AIDS scourge that had a stranglehold on the country.He said: 'In 2008 they came up with the establishment of a Palliative Care Advisory Committee (PCAC) to guide the implementation of palliative care services in the country but that did not work for it was then put on hold,' he said.

He further said in 2011 there was a re-activation of the committee that had a taskforce to help come up with strategies that would benefit people.'Even though that was the case in 2011, Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital established the first dedicated Cancer Palliative Care Clinic in the nation so that it can benefit people in the northern part of the country,' he said.Furthermore, he said though there are short-comings, the clinic is functioning on a part-time basis because most of the doctors are working part-time since they have hospital duties to attend to.

'We have a team that works under the clinic and they have been helpful to the patients. The team includes nurses, pastors and even community members. This clinic does not only focus on cancer patients, but it also caters to other patients,' said Mbangtang.Mbangtang went on to say that the Ministry of Health has opened a new chapter on this count and hands are on the deck to roll out comprehensive palliative care of the nation.

Talking about palliative care in Africa, he said for the majority of Africans with progressive and life-limiting illnesses, their access to culturally appropriate holistic palliative care is inadequate.'In 2007, there were over 700,000 new cancer cases and nearly 600,000 were cancer-related deaths and cancer rates in the continent are expected to grow by 100 percentage over the next 20 years,' he said.

Mbangtang stated that in 2009, an estimated number of 22.5 million people were living with HIV/AIDS, with 1.8 million new infections reported in that year alone.'Out of 53 African countries, only four have palliative care integrated into either their health or cancer strategic plans and this include Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda while Rwanda and Swaziland have developed a stand-alone national palliative care,' he said.

Palliative care, by definition of the World Health Organisation (WHO), is a specialised area of healthcare that focuses on relieving and preventing the suffering of patients. It is an approach that improves the quality of life for patients and families facing problems associated with life-threatening illnesses. It works through prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems- physical, psychological and spiritual.