13 Dec 2016

 The Ministry of Health and Wellness plans to reduce escalating costs of referrals to South Africa and local private facilities.

The ministry would, therefore,  improve access to specialist care, health minister, Ms Dorcas Makgato told the media on December 12.

She said they established a unit to strengthen monitoring and evaluation of clinical care for hospitalised patients as well as monitoring specialists need and distribution in the country.

The ministry, she said, also took steps to reduce congestion at Princess Marina and Nyangabgwe referral hospitals. The steps taken included improving quality of service as well as maternity clinics being equipped for maternal and neonatal care.

Concerning fleet management, Ms Makgato said her ministry was addressing transport issues across the country.

 Of the 555 vehicles planned for replacement, 202 vehicles had been secured (103 ambulances and 99 non-ambulances) and delivery was on-going.

“Despite transport challenges, the need for effective emergency response cannot be overemphasised,” she said, adding that the ministry had established emergency medical centres in Mahalapye, Palapye, Selebi Phikwe, Lobatse, Francistown, Gaborone, Maun and Kasane.

Ms Makgato noted that the centres were strategically located to cater for high volume of population needing the services.
She said the ministry was developing a health Financing Strategy (2017-2021).

 The strategy was necessitated by factors such as the need to sustain health service delivery, identifying alternative financing options, universal health coverage and the rising costs of healthcare.

The ministry, Ms Makgato said, was looking at improving conditions of service to reduce high attrition rate.

She said her ministry was re-named Ministry of Health and Wellness in line with the ministry’s shift to strengthen prevention initiatives that included promoting wellness of the nation.

She said implementation of organisational transformation, which would be in phased approach effective April 1, 2017, draft operational structures as well as job effectiveness description had been drafted and would be submitted to DPSM for processing by end of the year.

Ms Makgato said 27 district health management teams had been rationalised to 18, adding that the leaner the structure, the more effective it would be. ENDS