15 Nov 2020

Health and Wellness minister, Dr Edwin Dikoloti says the integrated community based health services guidelines will be a one-stop shop for coordinated and standardised health provision for communities.

He said this when launching the guidelines in Gaborone on November 12.

Dr Dikoloti said it was in the ministry and government’s interest to see that basic health needs were addressed, saying the strategy was a critical component towards that realization.

“The ministry through the integrated national guidelines will offer a people centered health system where the community can participate, mobilise, lead and come up with strategies, solutions and innovations on issues relating to health,” he said.

He revealed that the document would address the demand for knowledge on epidemic and pandemics, as well as seeking to build capacity for the service providers to strengthen community surveillance and monitoring amongst other things.

Furthermore, he said the service guidelines would be used as a tool for assessing the unmet needs of households by the community health workers, as it would provide the minimum package of what needed to be done by health workers.

Dr Dikoloti said in the past community based structures and inter-sectoral collaboration were relaxed, hence the worst calamities of social and medical ills.

He opined that it was important for community health workers to take advantage of active community engagement and empowerment initiatives to reduce costs of care of clients.

For his part, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and wellness, Mr Kabelo Ebineng said the guidelines would operationalise the harmonisation of Botswana’s community health workers.

It would address the inadequate inter-sectoral collaboration in the delivery of primary health care services and quality assurance mechanism to address communicable and non-communicable diseases, he added.

Mr Ebineng acknowledged the presence of various multilateral partners who helped with providing quality health services in Botswana since the Alma Ata declaration of 1978.

He said that such collaborations underscored the need for sustainable action across all sectors to improve population health and health equity. Ends