Africa-Press – Botswana. There is great potential for Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital (SKMTH) to not only address Botswana’s health needs, but also to be a valuable strategic partner, President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr Alain Berset said Tuesday. He was talking following a tour of the University of Botswana based facility in Gaborone.
Mr Berset observed that the idea of a teaching hospital, delayed as it was, having first been conceptualised in the 1980s, was inspired by the need to develop capacity for the domestic health sector.
Construction of the hospital eventually took place during the years 2010 -14, and was followed by its establishment as a public entity in 2016. It then had a board from 2018, and a commissioning team in 2019, before it was used as a COVID-19 centre in 2020, he said.
Consequently, the hospital’s full potential was yet to be realised, and Switzerland, which signed a commitment to partner with Botswana in matters health earlier in the day, would be happy to enter into strategic partnership with it.
Accompanying Mr Berset, the Deputy Ambassador of Switzerland, Ms Veronique Haller said her country was willing to share ideas, and Botswana could tap into their experience in training health professionals for replacement of those retiring.
Acting health minister, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe said the domestic health sector had been honoured by Mr Berset and his entourage’s tour of SKMTH during the very first visit by a Swiss head of state to Botswana.
“It is encouraging that Mr Berset was able to run through our state of the art facility, which is a quaternary health facility aimed at delivering the highest quality of specialised healthcare, as well as providing a platform for teaching and research in line with national and global priorities,” said Mr Lelatisitswe.
The acting minister said he hoped the tour offered Mr Berset and his entourage an idea of Botswana’s achievements as well as constraints in implementing the hospital’s strategy and effective operation.
“You will agree with me that achieving the dream …would require a change in strategy and hence our hope in the agreement we have entered through the Declaration of Intent we signed earlier this morning,” Mr Lelatisitswe said. He further reiterated government’s intention to prioritise practical operation of the agreement. Meanwhile, SKMTH acting commissioning manager, Mr Othusise Fane said when outlining the history of the hospital, that at full operation it would provide patient-centred specialised care, train health care professionals as well as be a centre for medical research. He said currently the hospital offered radiology, nephrology and pharmacy services, and would soon have an Intensive care unit (ICU), medical oncology and laboratory services among others. Mr Fane said in the long term, they would add specialised services such as comprehensive cancer, cardiovascular, trauma, burn and renal care centres as well as organ transplantation. He said strong collaboration with potential partners, citing Switzerland’s University Hospital Geneva would be beneficial as SKMTH positioned itself as a world-class training facility and provider of cutting edge research and treatment.
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