18 Sep 2022

The Ministry of Health has received teleconference equipment worth over P500 000 from I-TECH Botswana.

The teleconference equipment is expected to assist the ministry to deal with the HIVAIDS situation. The ministry’s deputy permanent secretary, Dr Tshepo Machacha said, on Friday, that the  equipment was in line with moving health services towards digitisation.

“It will go a long way to support remote health care, clinical mentorship programme, virtual training and other relevant activities in the ministry,” Dr Machana said.

He thanked I-TECH Botswana for the noble gesture and for providing direct service delivery and technical assistance in support of government health priorities as well as working closely with the ministry on HIV testing services, laboratories systems, continuous quality improvement, monitoring and evaluation and health informatics.

Since 2003, he said, I-TECH Botswana had assisted the ministry in several projects, among them, developing the TB and STI national curriculum, the national in service PMTCT/Option B+ training curriculum and the BSc (medical laboratory sciences) Degree at the University of Botswana.

He added that the company had also collaborated with the ministry to help strengthen health systems to improve quality of HIV service delivery through seconding of a quality improvement technical advisor at the ministry headquarters and six quality improvement officers based in five different districts.

“Therefore, the teleconference support from I-TECH comes at the right time. It will be extended to six ministry facilities countrywide including Athlone Hospital in Lobatse, Kagiso Clinic in Selebi Phikwe, Rakops Primary Hospital in Boteti, Kasane Primary Hospital in Chobe, JP Kavindama Hospital in Okavango and Disaneng Clinic in Ngami,” he said.

Dr Machana urged the HIV/AIDS programmes leadership to ensure that the system was used appropriately for the benefit of the ministry priority needs.

He said Botswana was leading the global response against the HIVAIDS epidemic and was one of the first countries to have met the UNAIDS’ ambitious 95-95-95 targets. 

“According to the BAIS V, Botswana is at 95-98-95 and is on course towards the epidemic control,” he said.  For his part, I-TECH Botswana representative, Mr Shreshth

Mawandia said they were moving Botswana towards digitisation as espoused by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s transformation agenda.

Mr Mawandia said the teleconference equipment to the Ministry of Health would go a long way to assist with remote CQI activities, telemedicine, remote mentoring, all in line with Botswana’s Digital Health Initiative. He hailed government efforts for defeating the HIV virus and coming close to achieving epidemic control.

He said the donation was made possible through funding from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), PEPFAR and the US government. ENDS