28 Jul 2019

Assistant Minister of Health and Wellness, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe has refuted allegations that his ministry discriminates Batswana owned companies that provide air medical services.

Mr Lelatisitswe said Batswana owned companies that met the technical criterion for air medical evacuations were engaged to carry out air medical evacuations for the past six years.

He said the ministry did not discriminate a citizen owned company against Government Citizens Empowerment Policy with regards to procurement.

Mr Lelatisitswe stated that citizen owned companies had inquired with the ministry regarding the requirements in providing  air medical evacuations, and that the technical specifications had been provided to the companies.

He said so far the companies had not given the ministry feedback after their inquiries and collection of the requirements.

He said the technical criterion was a safety measure put in place to protect patients from unprofessional and harmful patient care practices.

Mr Lelatisitswe said the ministry had carried out 1 120 air medical evacuations for the past six years.

He said the total cost associated with air medical evacuations for the past four years amounted to over P55 million.

He added that the companies that were engaged to carry out air medical evacuations were Med Rescue Botswana, the Flying Mission Services and Okavango Air Rescue.

He further noted that Med Rescue Botswana was the only citizen owned company that currently met the technical criterion of providing air medical services.

Mr Lelatisitswe further refuted allegations that the ministry had ever engaged Boro Air Company to provide air medical evacuations because the company had never proved to have the capacity in terms of emergency care personnel, medical equipment and purpose designed air ambulance to provide air medical services.

He explained that Boro Air Company had previously inquired about the requirements to provide air medical services but that after being issued the requirements, they never got back to the ministry.

Specially Elected MP, Mr Mephato Reatile had asked the minister to state the number of medical evacuations or related activities that were carried out by his ministry through air charter for the past six years.

He also wanted to know the total cost associated with air chartered flights, names of companies that were engaged to provide those services, and to provide a breakdown by year and companies engaged for the past four financial years.

He further wanted to know whether Batswana owned companies were engaged, and if so, to provide the names and if not, the reasons why the ministry discriminated Batswana owned companies against Government Citizen Empowerment Policy with regards to procurement.

The minsiter was also asked how many times the ministry had engaged Boro Air Company to provide air charter services during their trips to the safari camps to conduct medical evacuations for the past three years. Ends