Meanwhile, the supply of vital, essential, and necessary (VEN) medications is at 63%. He said that these figures are expected to rise significantly in the coming weeks as additional supplies, currently still in production, begin to arrive. “Government has so far procured over 300 tonnes of essential medical supplies with additional shipments expected soon,” he said. “Government has prioritised the transformation of the Central Medical Stores and the medicines supply chain to ensure that we will never return to this situation. Through BETP, CMS will be restructured, informed by an evaluation currently underway.” He said this is in keeping with the medium to long-term strategies “I detailed when I declared a State of Public Health Emergency”. He, however, said government is undertaking the necessary reforms that include immediate digitisation of the health system. In addition, he said to address supply-chain disruptions with medical commodities, government has implemented several short- to medium-term measures.
The medium-term measures, according to Boko, include the establishment of the Health First Botswana Partnership. “This is a fund intended to raise funding to support the Ministry of Health with efficient procurement of healthcare supplies to meet the needs of our people sustainably; approval for the use of the Emergency Procurement method, as provided for under the Public Procurement Act, to respond swiftly to the current predicament; and the National Steering Committee and the National Task Force, that government created on August 25, both led from the Office of the President, will continue to lend full support to the Minister of Health to coordinate and ensure successful closure of this situation,” he said. However, he said his administration inherited a health system plagued by non-functional and obsolete equipment requiring significant investment to rehabilitate. Therefore, he said they have recently bought two new state-of-the-art X-ray machines for Princess Marina Hospital, and as a medium-term intervention, they are deploying three mobile X-rays in Gumare, Gweta, and Bobonong primary hospitals, which have no radiology services. Moreover, he said Cervical Cancer remains a leading cause of cancer deaths in Botswana.
