11 Mar 2020

Poor data quality is the number one issue that should be addressed to deliver high standard and safe health care, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Lemogang Kwape has said..

Launching the Botswana health data collaborative roadmap and the e-Health Strategy 2020-2024 on March 10, Dr Kwape called for  improvement of data, its analysis and use.

 That would ensure that every Motswana was adequately informed about their health status in order to make informed decisions, he said.

Dr Kwape also said there was need to ensure accessibility of data from all health programmes to fulfill the mandate of ensuring that health service providers met the population’s needs and expectations.

Data meant nothing unless it was accessible and usable, he said.

Dr Kwape noted that a huge amount of data was generated daily which should be harvested and shared.

  The minister said the theme of the launch, ‘Botswana Health Data Collaborative: Quality National Health Data, Better Health for All’ sought to strengthen health data in Botswana.

  He challenged health stakeholders and partners to use data to drive transformation, enhance efficiency, improve quality and reduce costs.

Dr Kwape lamented that over the past years, the ministry had witnessed a rise in the cost of care provided by both public and private sector that was not commensurate with quality of care provided.

Quoting a 2018 WHO publication, he said Botswana health system was commensurate with that of a low income country.     

“This is not an acceptable status considering the ever increasing cost and the status quo is not sustainable,” he said.

He therefore called for collaborative approaches to improve the country’s health status.

Batswana, he said, needed to receive better value for the massive investments made by development partners.

Stressing the need to put the patient at the centre of the health system, Dr Kwape said technologies to measure and improve quality of care as well as empower the population with necessary data should be employed.

The e-health strategy, he said, presented more innovations and possibilities stimulated by the fourth industrial revolution and digital health era.

Dr Kwape said partners,  including private sector, civil society, faith-based organisations, development agencies and other stakeholders had made tremendous strides in building the national health system thereby enabling accessibility of health care to Batswana.

He said the launch would trigger improvement of stakeholder alignment with national priorities as well as the monitoring and evaluation plan.

Monitoring and evaluation would be streamlined to reduce duplication and curb proliferation of disjointed digital data systems, he said.

Dr Kwape said there was need for partners to be brought together on knowledge of disease patterns, analysis and use of data, hence the health data collaborative roadmap.

The roadmap’s aim was to rally all actors in health information systems as well as monitoring and evaluation to achieve efficiency, transparency and accountability.

It would also provide better reporting of national and global progress on SDGs, remove data fragmentation and lack of coordination in data systems, strengthen security of health data as well as monitoring programmes and accountability.

The launch was coupled with the signing of a statement of commitment by Defence, Justice and Security and Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs ministers, NAHPA and PEPFAR coordinators, UN and WHO representatives, statistician general, EU head of delegation, DIT director, Ministry of Transport and Communications, CEO Business Botswana and UB computer department head. Ends