19 Jan 2015

The Minister of Health, Ms Dorcas Makgato says the construction of the long awaited Shakawe Primary Hospital will start at the beginning of the 2015/16 financial year.

Ms Makgato said the ground-breaking ceremony for the project would be conducted in April/May this year, and that the project would start with civil works to allow contractors to build staff houses.

She said the commencement of the project was delayed by the need to align the designs to those demanded by the Council of Health Services Accreditation for Southern Africa. She was speaking during the official opening of Kajaja Clinic which was donated by Mr Farouk Ismail and his family last Thursday.

Ms Makgato said government was on track to fight health challenges noting that the country was also on track to attain United Nations Millennium Development Goals on health.

Also, she thanked Mr Ismail for helping in improving access and proximity of health services to the community.

She said the donation was a blessing to the community as they would stop travelling 14 km to access health services such as ARV dispensary, Tuberculosis and Malaria treatment. Ms Makgato noted that currently the facility had assisted 234 patients while 50 patients had accessed ARV services.

She appreciated challenges such as shortage of vehicles, electricity and accommodation for the second nurse, but noted that government would construct another house if funds permit.

“This is a gift donated to the community to augment government efforts noting that Kajaja had a mobile stop and President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama listened to the residents’ plea hence he approached private sector to assist,” she added.

She said if the economy continues to recover, a lot would be done to enhance the credibility of the health sector in the district. Currently, she said Kajaja clinic would share the ambulance with Sepopa clinic.

The minister said the district had made tremendous achievement since the establishment of DHMT, noting that ARV rollout to all health facilities was 100 per cent while mobile clinic coverage stands at 80 per cent.

Ms Makgatou said 902 cases of Malaria were reported in the year 2013/14 and only seven deaths recorded while Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMCT) programme was progressing well and stands at 99.8 per cent.

“This indicates that we are doing all our best to fight mortality by taking care of children.” For his part, one member of the Ismail family, Mr Rashid Chopdat said they found it fit to play their role towards improving health sector in the country.

Mr Chopdat said as Batswana, they responded positively to the President plea as government alone could not afford to provide developmnt projects to the nation.

He said they were not assisting the community for the first time,  noting that they had built another clinic in Tswapong area and also donated 200 beds to Sbrana Psychiatric Hospital in Lobatse.

He urged Kajaja community to make use of the facility and to look after it. The area MP, Mr Bagalatia Arone thanked President Khama for responding positively to the concerns of residents. Mr Arone said the President had done a lot in Okavango area to improve the lives of the community.

He also welcomed the construction of Shakawe Primary Hospital and suggested that specialised services such as eye clinic and dentistry be included as patients travel long distance to as far as Maun to access such services. ENDS