09 Nov 2015

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Ms Shenaaz El Halaabi says her ministry remains steadfast in ensuring that the public receives the best health care services hence they support the Botswana International Nursing Conference (BINC) 2015.

Ms El Halaabi said this a three-day Botswana International Nursing Conference 2015 in Gaborone last week.

“BINC’s objectives are in line with our commitment to harnessing the professional development of our health workers and providing quality health care services to our people,” she said.

She said the government has over the years invested heavily in expanding health care infrastructure and services, developing health care personnel and improving systems and processes to ensure efficient delivery of health care services.

Ms El Halaabi noted that the ministry has built clinics, primary hospitals, health posts, district and referral hospitals all over the country to ensure easy access to health care.

She said Botswana’s health physical infrastructure has been considered among the best in the region, adding that efforts were underway to accredit the country’s health facilities to ensure that they comply with the best international standards in health care provision.

“Public hospitals are central to Botswana’s health system and they play a major role in delivering curative care as well as preventive, diagnostic and rehabilitative services. 

We have addressed the issue of erratic and inadequate supply of medicines and we have made great strides in promoting the use of information communications technology in health care,” she said.

Ms El Halaabi said she was proud to announce that since 2009 the ministry collaborated with the Council of Health Service Accreditation (COHSASA) to accredit health services of which their objective was to improve the quality standards and put in place systems that would address critical deficiencies such as risk management, human resource management, quality improvement and clinical governance.

“The accreditation is a powerful symbol in our government commitment to provision of quality health care, using the benchmark associated with global practices.

As the ministry, we want to be a model of excellence in the provision of quality health care services,” she stated.

Ms El Halaabi said her ministry’s health service standards were guided by the core values that drive them to consistently meet the customer’s expectations by providing health services with respect and kindness and always delivering services on time.

“This conference has covered a number of pertinent issues that are central care services in the region. 

I am sure that as you prepare to return to various workplaces, you will carry what you learnt here and use it to save lives and care for your people,” she said.

Meanwhile, the director of Aviwe Healthcare Resource and Training Institute, Mr Melvon Guga said Aviwe was inspired by hard work and dedication to do more to deliver quality health care services to the people.

“We all know that access to high quality, low cost health care services was a big challenge in many countries,” adding that “the onus lied with private sector companies to come in and bridge the gap, which is what Aviwe is all about,” he said.

He said their aim was to increase their investment in the health sector as a way of responding to government’s call for the private sector to play a more active role in the economy to facilitate easier delivery of services to the people. Ends