08 Mar 2017

Minister of Health and Wellness, Ms Dorcas Makgato has said the current Public Service Act does not adequately address the human resource needs of her ministry.
Presenting the 2017/18 budget proposals in parliament on March 7, the minister said a situational analysis and benchmarking exercise was done last year, and it produced a report with clear short and long term attraction and retention proposals.
The ministry is faced with human resource constraints particularly doctors and specialists.
Minister Makgato said they continue to recruit personnel both internally and externally, adding her ministry recruited 54 doctors and three specialists from Mauritius last year, out of which six have reported for duty this year.
“We have taken this partnership one step further and are now drafting a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Mauritius to facilitate recruitment. In terms of local recruitment, the ministry has continued to absorb doctors that graduate from the University of Botswana medical school into our establishment,” she said.
She said 45 interns were absorbed in November last year, as well as eight specialists.
Meanwhile, the minister said cases of Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) were increasing. “The burden of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, and chronic respiratory diseases is significant and rising in Botswana,” she said.
Ms Makgato said deaths due to NCDs far exceed those due to TB, malaria and HIV combined.
She said these conditions not only kill, they are debilitating; diabetics have their feet amputated and those with long standing hypertension are immobilized by stroke.
The minister said the major drivers of NCDs – smoking, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, were preventable.
She said the 2014 national survey, showed that 31 per cent of Batswana are overweight, 18 per cent smoke and 20 per cent do not engage in enough physical activity.
 The minister said a number of Batswana are unaware that they have NCDs.
 “Currently, over 70 per cent of cancers are diagnosed at advanced stage, which significantly lowers the chances for cure and long term survival,” she said.
Ms Makgato stated that they have conducted various campaigns to educate communities on NCDs.
Minister Makgato also said the Botswana University Hospital is expected to start operation in the coming financial year.
She said the vision is for the hospital to be a regional leader in medical education, research and clinical care by 2023.
“When fully operational, the facility is expected to help address health care challenges such as rising levels of non-communicable diseases, shortage of healthcare personnel especially doctors and allied health professionals, retention of health care providers and rising costs of healthcare, which is exacerbated by referral of patients to the private facilities both locally and abroad,” she said.
Meanwhile, the minister proposed a P6 billion and P639 million recurrent and development budget proposals respectively.
She said the bulk of development funds are to be used in undertaking various infrastructure projects across the country through the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP).
The development budget will be shared as follows, primary health care will receive P260 million, hospital services P191 million, HIV/AIDS programme P163 million, Institute of Health Sciences P11.8 million, ministry’s computerization P8 million while consultancies will get P3 million.
The recurrent budget represents an increase of 14.6 per cent over the current year’s approved budget, which is attributed to adjustment of salaries and related allowances, increase in service charges and outsourced services.
The budget allocation will be as such; Department of Clinical Services will get the largest share of P5 billion, as it is responsible for all government hospitals, clinics, primary health care facilities, Central Medical Stores and National Health laboratory.
The second largest share of P825 million goes to the ministry’s headquarters, while the balance of P453 million will be allocated to the remaining five departments of public health, health sector relations and partnerships, policy planning, monitoring and evaluation, health inspectorate and HIV/Aids Prevention and Care. ENDS