12 Oct 2015

Former Minister of Health Reverend Lesedi Mothibamele has called on all stakeholders in the health sector to work collectively in order to improve the health status of Batswana.

Officiating during the Kgalagadi North health fair in Hukuntsi recently, Rev Mothibamele said health service delivery in the country should be pluralistic and requires consolidated efforts from the public, religious organisations and traditional medicine practices.

He however indicated the need for all stakeholders to adhere to the Ministry of Health (MoH) service standards since it was the one mandated for the formulation of policies, regulation and norms, standards and guidelines for health services.

Rev Mothibamele highlighted that the MoH has introduced the Integrated Health Service Plan (IHSP) as a strategy that presents the vision for the improvement of the health status and health care of Batswana.

The strategy, he said promotes among others community participation in the planning and delivery of health services and emphasises the need for inter-sectorial cooperation in various fields such as environmental health, occupational health and safety, as well as the responsibility of the citizens for their own health.

He however raised a concern on the reluctance of men to take ownership of their health and fully partake on issues related to health improvement. 

He said men are traditionally viewed as heads of the families therefore they should be exemplary and be at the forefront of addressing health related issues.

Rev Mothibamele further applauded government efforts towards improving the health sector in the country particularly the fight against HIV and AIDS pandemic.

“Government has over the years made commendable efforts in the fight against HIV. The first case of HIV in Botswana was recorded in 1985 and since then the government declared HIV and AIDS a national crisis and committed itself to a long term response and relentlessly fought the scourge,” he said.

Initially, he said because of the complexity of the disease, most of the responses were clinical in nature and interventions showed some limitations as the epidemic spread like veldt fire. However between 1997 and 2002, the interventions went beyond the biomedical approach to become multi-sectorial, he added.

Rev Mothibamele said the multi-sectorial approach of addressing the epidemic showed a lot of improvement in curbing the spread of the epidemic as it brought on board every one and every sector including churches.

He noted that the setting aside of the month of September as month of prayer against HIV and AIDS was a way to give the religious community the opportunity to play their part in the fight against the epidemic. Ends