21 Aug 2024

For the next two years, Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital in Francistown will enjoy the services of an additional 20 health professionals.

The newly arrived team from China has been dispatched to the second city’s referral hospital, whose superintendent, Dr Ivan Kgetse pleaded for the best service to the patients the team could give.

Speaking at the team’s orientation  on Tuesday, Dr Kgetse also emphasised the importance of time management, which could aid them in assisting patients effectively. Dr Kgetse also informed the medical team that they should always exercise equity in their work.

“Treat each patient and everyone equally regardless of their social status and without fear or favour,” he added.

He also advised them to be accountable in whatever decision they made and work as a team with the ‘older’ staff members.

“I do not want to see the Chinese medical team working alone as we have other doctors from here and other countries,” he added.

Dr Kgetse emphasised customer focus, adding that the team should be customer centric.

Also, Dr Kgetse informed the 20-member team that Nyangabgwe, their place of work for the next two years, was overwhelmed with high patient numbers, attributing the problem to too few private health facilities in Francistown as compared to Gaborone, where patients were spoilt for choice.

Francistown has only two private hospitals; Riverside and Francistown Academic hospital, whilst Gaborone has an abundance of such. “With more choices at their disposal the ‘which hospital to choose’ luxury is what Francistown patients simply do not have,” said Dr Kgetse.

He said the abundance of medical facilities in Gaborone had effectively diluted the patient pool, leaving its referral hospital with less business than its northern counterpart.

He said on yearly basis, Nyangabgwe received an average of over 41 000 patients whilst the number of out patients stood slightly above 91 000.

He said this was because Nyangabgwe did not work as a stand-alone hospital, but took care for other health facilities in town, including Jubilee Clinic, which provided TB screening, HIV testing and psychological services, amongst others.

Additionally, Dr Kgetse said despite its official 542-bed capacity, Nyangabgwe regularly breached the 600 patient mark.

“This bed ‘squeeze’ is a contrast to Princess Marina, where there are many facilities and a plethora of private hospitals to alleviate the pressure. On other issues, Dr Kgetse appreciated the Chinese medical teams for having assisted a large number of local medical professionals through skills sharing and establishing pair hospital cooperation mechanisms.

Dr Kgetse said the arrangement had promoted the development of healthcare services in Botswana.

He further indicated that the cooperation had assisted Botswana to manage pressing health challenges such as acute shortage of specialised personnel, increasing demands for specialised services due to evolving disease patterns and high staff shortage.

Meanwhile, Sergeant James Ramatlola of the Botswana Police Service said, “I implored you to familiarise yourselves with the laws of Botswana so that you do not find yourself on the wrong side of the law.”

To those who want to own vehicles, Sergeant Ramatlola advised them to acquire driving licenses and that their vehicles should always be road worthy.

Sergeant Ramatlola also advised the team to report any criminal offences against them to the police and also to police themselves.

He said Botswana was experiencing many common offences such as robbery, drunken driving, gender-based violence and common theft.

They were also advised not to keep huge sums of money in their houses and report any criminal activity to police emergency number 999.

Chinese team leader, Mr Minxiong promised that they would discharge their duties without fear or favour during their two-year stay in the country.

Mr Hu thanked the government of Botswana for the warm welcome and said he expected the cordial relationship to continue until the end of the end of the team’s tenure.

This is the 17th batch of  Chinese medical teams  to Botswana with first team of 13 doctors arrived in Botswana in 1981 and was dispatched to the then Jubilee Hospital. ENDS