20 Jul 2021

Health and wellness assistant minster, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe has told Parliament that there are currently no Batswana radiologists.

Responding to a parliamentary question recently, Mr Lelatisitswe said Botswana, however had three qualified and licensed as ophthalmologists and 36 optometrists.

Of the three ophthalmologists, two were in the public health sector while one was in the private sector.

He said there was one optometrist in the public health facility with 35 in private practice while the current ratio of ophthalmologists to patients was 0.3 doctors per 100 000 population, which translated to one ophthalmologist to 328 571 patients.

He indicated that the Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) in Molepolole was conceptualised and designed to offer only post basic ophthalmic nursing programme and not all ophthalmic programmes.

He said the ophthalmic nursing programme was initiated in 2006 and was offered for eight years until 2014, adding during that time, 47 candidates graduated from the programme.

He said the ministry took a decision to halt trainings due to shortage of lecturers and allowed officers to focus on curriculum development in line with Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA).

He stated that the curriculum had been developed and was awaiting BQA approval.

Furthermore, he stated that radiology and ophthalmology were medical specialities and thus offered to individuals who had completed their first degree studies as medical doctors.

He said the ministry had made a deliberate effort to address acute shortages and continued to collaborate with the Ministry of Tertiary Education and the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC).

“My ministry continues to offer radiology and ophthalmology as in-service trainings and currently there are six medical officers who are training for the aforementioned speciality areas (five in ophthalmology and one in radiology) and they are expected to complete in 2023, 2024 and 2025,” he said.

Molepolole North MP, Mr Oabile Regoeng had wanted to know the number of Batswana ophthalmologists, optometrists and radiologists.

MP Regoeng also wanted to know how many were qualified, employed in public health facilities as well as the current ratio of ophthalmologists to patients.

He further wanted to know if the ministry was aware that Molepolole IHS was deliberately conceptualised and designed, among others, to offer ophthalmology programme and why it was not offered.

The legislator asked if there was any deliberate collaborative effort or plan between the ministries of Health and of Tertiary Education and HRDC to address acute shortage of experts in these fields aand how long it would take to address the problem. ENDS