03 Dec 2024

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which was one of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) campaign top picks going into the general elections, would be a game changer in the country’s health sector.

Kanye West Member of Parliament, Mr Victor Phologolo expressed this on Monday when contributing to the ongoing debate  of State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) .

Mr Phologolo said the scheme would not only ensure better healthcare in public health facilities, it would also lure private practitioners to remote areas and this would lead to improved quality of life of the citizenry and a dignified life.

He said in cases where healthcare was not adequate in the remote areas, there could be air transport to airlift patients to a better healthcare facility.

However, Mr Phologolo said for the NHIS to be effective, there ought to be good roads infrastructure to connect communities to the facilities.

He said currently in his constituency, residents had to endure being transported on bad roads to the nearest facilities, which worsened their health conditions.

Also, Mr Phologolo said construction of Kanye hospital was long overdue and its delay came with a cost to the lives of the community.

Furthermore, he said the return of clinics to local authorities would address some of the challenges in the health sector such as shortage of nurses and medicine.

On other issues, the Kanye West MP said the envisaged increase of the old age pension to P1800 under the UDC government would significantly contribute to the wellbeing of pensioners and their families.

It was his hope he said, that Batswana’s quality of life and health would improve under the UDC government.

Regarding other issues affecting Kanye, Mr Phologolo said the village needed street lights, and faced severe shortage of water among others.

In his contribution, Jwaneng/Mabutsane MP, Mr Omphemetse Kwapa said the economy would improve under the UDC government and pleaded that when such happened, challenges such as poor roads and infrastructure in the constituency would be addressed.

He said, due to shortage of accommodation for teachers in Maokane, they were accommodated in Jwaneng despite that there was no public transport owing to bad roads.

This, he said, affected performance of teachers.

Also, he said shortage of accommodation for other public officers particularly in Jwaneng, was a major problem and called on government to build remedy the situation.

Mr Kwapa said allocation of residential plots, ploughing fields and business plots was another problem in the constituency. Ends