11 Nov 2025

Government has prioritised transformation of the Central Medical Stores (CMS) and medicines supply chain to ensure that the country never return to the dire situation of shortage of medical supplies.

President Advocate Duma Boko informed Parliament on Monday during the State-of-the Nation Address. 

He stated that CMS would be restructured, informed by an evaluation currently underway, saying it was in keeping with the medium to long term strategies detailed when State of Public Health Emergency was declared.

Government he said undertook necessary reforms that included immediate digitisation of the health system.

President Boko indicated that government had implemented several short to medium term measures to further address supply-chain disruptions with medical commodities.

The measures he said included establishment of Health First Botswana Partnership, which he said was a fund intended to raise funding to support the Ministry of Health with efficient procurement of healthcare supplies to meet the needs of people sustainably.

He said that another measure was approval for the use of the Emergency Procurement method, as provided for under the Public Procurement Act, to respond swiftly to the current predicament

The National Steering Committee and the National Task Force, which government created on August 25, both led from the Office of the President, he said, would continue to lend full support to the Minister of Health to coordinate and ensure successful closure of this situation.

Furthermore, President Boko expressed concern that the administration inherited a health system plagued by non-functional and obsolete equipment requiring significant investment to rehabilitate. 

“We have recently bought two new state of the art x-ray machines for Princess Marina Hospital and as a medium term intervention, we are deploying three mobile x-rays in Gumare, Gweta and Bobonong primary hospitals, which have no radiology services,” he said.

Laboratory services he said were also adversely affected due to equipment that was obsolete, and shortage of reagents.

The Ministry of Health, the President said would transition towards equipment placement models for both laboratory, radiology services with both local suppliers and original equipment manufacturers at a cheaper cost than the current to address the challenge and the high cost of purchasing and maintaining equipment.

President Boko said government would therefore, only pay for the tests while equipment owners would be responsible for their maintenance and availability of reagents under strict Service Level Agreements.  He informed Parliament that cervical cancer remained a leading cause of cancer deaths in Botswana, attributed to low screening rates as well as late diagnosis among others.

He stated that government had invested in health promotion and education to encourage Batswana to have regular screening, which would facilitate early diagnosis and better clinical outcomes.

As part of the global call and sustainable development goals to end malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS by 2030, he pointed out that the government was fully committed to eliminating malaria by the year 2027. In the last decade, government had made significant progress towards malaria elimination, with a 43.5 per cent reduction in malaria cases, he added.

President Boko stated that to optimise the provision of specialised care and ensure efficiency, government approved Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital (SKMTH) to function as a State- Owned Public Hospital.

The aim he said was to create a single pool of medical specialists with similar working conditions to enable realisation of the triple mandate of SKMTH of high-quality clinical services, training and research. He stated that urgent attention was required to support implementation of the National Health Insurance. “While our fiscal space is limited, we cannot afford to ignore the deteriorating conditions of our health facilities. 

Thus, the Health First Botswana Partnership that will be sealed during this month between the Ministry of Health and the Botswana Development Corporation will help urgently to address this challenge,” he said. 

Government he said received a generous grant of USD 50 million, approximately P700 million, to drive our commitment to transform the health system to a primary care focus, with emphasis on promotion of health, prevention, early detection and treatment. ENDS