25 Oct 2017

Before 1971, health care services were provided at Jubilee Hospital, a name synonymous with Francistown, which is celebrating its 120 years of existence on Saturday.

Due to congestion and the growth in population, there was need to increase health services provided in the town.

In 1971, the town council provided primary health services at the old Red Cross building situated at White City along the Francistown-Maun road.

There were two mobile stops each month month at Somerset East and Extension 14 near Tati Company Farms in order to bring services to squatters, and that was later followed by a clinic at Monarch.

In 1989, a new investment was made in the health sector when the 286-bed Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital (NRH) was opened to serve all of northern Botswana.

Prior to this, health services provided from 1971-1986 in council health facilities were ante-natal clinic, family planning, health education, child welfare and immunisation and the tuberculosis (TB) clinic.

In the early 70s, the council operated with a skeletal staff and to compliment the services, medical officers from Jubilee Hospital visited the facilities on a monthly basis until more personnel was recruited.

In 1988, integrated services were introduced which enabled patients to be served with any services they needed during a single visit to a facility.

It also paved the way for various support programmes to be incorporated into the existing primary health care system, and more training was also afforded to cadres as need be.

Health providers of different cadres were trained on expanded programme immunisation (EPI), which included the caring of logistics transporting of vaccines from central stores to the health facilities, including various modes of administration.

This led to the decrease of infant mortality and morbidity as well as eradication of some childhood disease such as smallpox.

Health facilities and programmes that were strengthened included community participation, health campaigns, nutrition surveillance and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and AIDS.

In the early 70s, STDs became a problem and health workers intensified their health education in order to fight the problem.

The first AIDS patient was diagnosed in 1989 in Francistown, and the number of cases increased until the town registered the highest number of cases in the country.

In March 1997, the Francistown Town Council, as it was known then and Nyangabwe Referral Hospital were awarded a floating trophy for having the best home based care programme in the northern region.

As the city celebrates 120 years, it now boasts of more than 20 clinics, health posts and mobile clinics. ENDS