22 Nov 2021

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made it evident that Botswana’s health care  system remains fragile and needs retuning,  says  health and wellness minister, Dr Edwin Dikoloti. 

Speaking during a consultative forum for primary health care in Gaborone yesterday, he said the ministry recognised the need for people-centred, community participatory primary health care services that allowed communities to mobilise strategies for solutions and try out new technologies on issues relating to their own health. 

The minister said that was why the ministry had come up with a sector-wide framework for primary health care and vital signs monitoring. 

  He said initiatives were now geared at refocusing and revamping the sector through generation and implementation of new guidelines.

 Among the strategies he mentioned Harmonisation of 2017, eHealth of 2019 and last year’s Integrated Community Based Strategy.

 All had been aligned to the country’s health policy and essential health package, he said.

  The minister said collaboration remained key in revitalising and delivering holistic primary health care to people in every corner of the country.

  Dr Dikoloti said primary health care revitalisation would hitch on intersectoral collaboration and health systems’ strengthening through sustainable decent work, as outlined in the decent work country programme for Botswana (2020-2024).

“We further recognise development in technology and in keeping with the Presidential Reset Agenda and we confirm that digitalisation to address access to care, use of data and improvement of diagnostics will be fully explored,” he said. 

  Noting that the  multisectoral and intersectoral approach government adopted to deal with health challenges had served the country well, he said it was in working together to bring health care to people that universal health coverage backed up by ownership and accountability could be realised.

  “By this I mean that we are more committed to delivering health care that addresses an individual and community needs through their life cycle, while ensuring that the unmet health needs of critical groups of people as those in hard to reach places, are addressed in the most efficient, equitable manner,” he said. 

Dr Dikoloti said it had taken long to revitalise primary health care but the COVID-19 pandemic had highlighted the need for government to revisit the approach of delivering health care to communities. 

For her part, the ministry’s acting permanent secretary Dr Malebogo Kebabonye said the consultative forum ,which was the first of its kind, was aimed at appreciating the current status of primary health care in the country; understanding the policy and regulatory framework supporting primary health care and establishing functional structures and mechanisms for implementation, monitoring and evaluation of primary health care. 

Dr Kebabonye said more than 40 years after the Alma Ata declaration, which identified primary health care as the key to attaining health for all, the current status of the country’s health sector was such that it was faced with many challenges which had left an increased gap in primary health care services. 

She said the forum therefore increased the need for a continuum system to curate and rehabilitate the country’s health system. ends