08 Nov 2017

President Lieutenant General Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama says the Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital will open next year.

Delivering the State of the Nation Address on November 6, the president said the Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital was expected to open its doors at the beginning of next year where quaternary care shall be offered.

He added that the hospital was also expected to offer leading services in areas of radiation oncology as well as organ transplant.

On other health issues, President Khama said the country continued to make improvements in combating cancer.

He said adding that government was in collaboration with America Centre for Disease Control to deal with cervical cancer.

He announced that new screening and treatment methods for pre-cancerous lesions of the cervix have been introduced to fight cervical cancer.

Further, the President said the HIV pandemic had caused tuberculosis (TB) cases to increase.

Thus, he said government in 2010 hastened to introduce TB/HIV confection treatment guidelines and increased Anti Retro Viral (ARV) drugs coverage which saw a decrease in TB cases.

The President reiterated that government in collaboration with stakeholders continued to make strides in combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

He noted that the country had been able to eliminate mother to child HIV transmission through adoption of Option B plus in 2015.

Other developments, he said, were effecting the UNAIDS Treat all Campaign where all HIV infected persons were put on treatment irrespective of their CD4 count.

He said adding that more research continues to be done on HIV/AIDS in the country and the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey (BAIS V) was about to commence and was due to be completed mid 2018/2019.

The survey, he said, shall for the first time be combined with TB prevalence survey.

President Khama further reiterated that Botswana was committed to achieving the UNAIDS targets of 90-90-90 and ending HIV by the year 2030.

He thanked the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Global Fund, European Union, Center for Disease Control, United States Agency for International Development, United Nations, Southern Africa Development Community, Academia and other stakeholders who continue to show unwavering commitment to the fight against HIV.

On general health financing, he said sustainable health financing remained a prime factor in achieving general health targets.

He said adding that National Health Accounts revealed that government dominated the financing of health services accounting for 65 per cent of the total health expenditure while donor purse continued to shrink.

The President reveled that during the years 2007/2008, 2009/2010 and 2013/2014 donor funding declined from 12 per cent to seven per cent of the total health expenditure while private sector financing had increased from 21 per cent to 28 per cent.

Meanwhile, he said, private sector financing increased from 21 per cent to 28 percent. ENDS