26 Jan 2026

The unfolding crisis in Botswana’s health system, a problem that has, according to President Advocate Duma Boko, been simmering over decades ought to be halted and stopped from shaking the very soul of the people of Botswana and throwing them into a state of despondency. 

“The health question is a test for the country, if we cannot solve it, we cannot solve anything else,” he said during his tour of Nyangabwe Referral Hospital (NRH) last Friday, underlining how unraveling this maze would bear testament to government’s tenacity to dislodge any challenge that the nation could find itself faced with at any point in the future. 

And making the system whole again will require more than just boldness. It will take a spirited fight, a fight that government is determined to not back down from. 

“That is why we need to take drastic and unorthodox measures to solve it. We need a complete devolution,” President Boko said. 

NRH superintendent Dr Ivan Kgetse, who led President Boko through various sections and wards of the hospital including the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the renal unit, the Accident and Emergency Department, the

Radiology Unit and the Antenatal Ward said while the facility was faced with a plethora of challenges, management and staff continue to do their absolute best to serve the public. 

Shortage of drugs, ageing equipment – some of which is already obsolete, as well as shortage of specialist doctors such as vascular surgeons, radiologists and neurosurgeons daily present themselves as major stumbling blocks to effective service delivery. 

According to Dr Kgetse, the lack of critical equipment such as an MRI machine and dialysis machines have compelled NRH to outsource the associated services, and with the cost of a single MRI scan standing at around P3 000 per scan or test, government forks out untold amounts annually to pay private service providers. 

Nyangabwe hospital also grapples with congestion which in some instances is not due to high volumes of patients but is rather because certain spaces are simply small. 

The Neonatal ICU for instance has room for just eight beds, while the main ICU has space sufficient for only six. 

“The unit is small as it has only eight beds. As a result, we refer a lot, and the costs are prohibitive,” Dr Kgetse said, in reference to the Neonatal ICU. As for the main ICU, the doctor would love for the ward to have adequate equipment. 

“There is inadequate equipment. For instance, we have got no back-up ventilators, so if one fails, we would not be able to manage the risk,” he explained. 

As Nyangabwe is the only tertiary hospital in the north and so unlike Princess Marina Hospital which shares its patient load with the couple of private hospitals strewn across Gaborone, its location and the lack of enough private facilities to help ease its load, government should strive to strengthen the hospital so that it is able to deliver according to expectation. 

Queuing with a loved one at the Accident and Emergency Department, Ms Elizabeth Morebodi of Block 5 in Francistown pleaded with President Boko for government to avail medicines in health facilities. 

“There are no medicines. We are being told to buy for ourselves yet many of us are grappling with unemployment,” she said, echoing the plea of many, who constantly have to move from one private pharmacy to the next in search of drugs and at times hospitals supplies necessary for surgical procedures to be carried out. ENDS