24 Aug 2022

Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital promises to change the country’s health landscape by providing excellent service in healthcare, research and teaching to improve health outcomes.

Speaking during a media engagement in Gaborone on Tuesday, the hospital commissioning manager, Dr Ishmael Makone said they were committed to providing sustainable and compassionate patient-centred services that would build stakeholder trust through collaborations and networks.

He said once fully operational, the hospital was expected to help address healthcare challenges in the country, noting that there had been rising levels of non-communicable disease coupled with shortage of healthcare personnel, especially doctors.

“The hospital will offer a comprehensive array of value-based healthcare services to deal with endemic and emerging healthcare problems in Botswana, including being a training hub for health professionals through the University of Botswana and other partners,” he said.

Dr Makone said prioritisation of services to be introduced at Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital was made taking into account the challenges the health sector was facing and mortalities attributed to lack of or inadequacies of certain services.

He further explained that the hospital would open its doors on September 1 with the introduction of services into four phases, phase one being the art radiology department, which is a high-priority area for the country.

The radiology department will provide medical imaging services for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes for all inpatients and outpatients, all medical examinations including for first-time employees, early disease detection and medical imaging for all types of injuries, gynaecology and obstetrics examinations.

He said the commissioning exercise was anticipated to take at least four to five years to successfully achieve the final phase four, which was the refinement of certain services into centres of excellence.

He noted that centres of excellence included comprehensive cancer care, critical care for adults, paediatrics and neonatal, trauma and burns, renal and organ transplant, cardiovascular and ophthalmology.

He promised accurate results, shorter waiting periods and flexible appointment times.

For his part, Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital board chairperson, Mr Basimane Bogopa confirmed that the hospital had been licensed as a private hospital to offer healthcare services by bill and charge patients either through medical aid payment or own cash.

He further explained that it was a referral hospital for patients needing specialised services and that patients would need to be referred either from government or private institutions. ENDS