14 Nov 2023

The Ministry of Health has employed 16 Biomedical Engineers and  accounts for nearly 90 per cent of the number for the establishment register. The assistant minister of Health Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe told Parliament that as per the establishment register, the ministry should have 18 Biomedical Engineers.

He said the entry Level for Biomedical Engineers was C2/C1 salary scale, being the highest among the allied health professionals as most of them enter service at C3 salary scale.

Mr Lelatisitswe further noted that currently, the headship for Biomedical Engineering Services at district and referral hospitals was D4 and D2 respectively.

“This is low compared to the headship package for other allied health services currently at D1,” he said adding that the grades for jobs were determined through a job evaluation exercise that was done periodically to accommodate new developments in the organization.

However, the assistant minister acknowledged the fact that the disparity may lead to erosion of Biomedical Engineers in the ministry and said they were engaging the Directorate of Public Service Management to address this. He said the ministry was offering short-term and long-term courses to empower Biomedical Engineers. Mr Lelatisitswe said short-term training was conducted in partnership with suppliers as new equipment was procured with training done locally and at the manufacturers’ factories.

 Other short-term trainings are done by our partners including the on-going training by JiCA in Japan, he said.

He also said the ministry was sponsoring two to three Technical Officers and one Biomedical Engineer for degree and masters programmes on an annual basis.

Mr Lelatisitswe’s response followed a question from Member of Parliament for Mahalapye West Mr David Tshere who wanted to be appraised on the status of Biomedical Engineering Services in the country.

This also includes the number of Biomedical Engineers the ministry should have as per the establishment register and the number employed by the ministry to date as well as their entry level scale. Ends