Africa-Press – Botswana. The Ministry of Health has re-introduced air transport services to decongest referral hospitals and provide specialist health services to people in remote areas.
Speaking during the launch of flight services for medical specialists through the support of Airborne Lifeline Foundation (ALF) and Choppies in Gaborone yesterday, Minister of Health, Dr Edwin Dikoloti said thousands of Batswana residing in remote areas now had an opportunity to receive care from specialised physicians.
Dr Dikoloti appreciated the ALF and Choppies partnership for their commitment to provide crucial services and ‘shortening the travel days to a day journey.’
He said the airborne services would make it possible for the already stretched health professionals to go back to their stations in the shortest time possible.
Moreover, he said air travel would assist patients to get feedback on time. He also said health professional teams would give feedback on the health infrastructure so that the necessary action could be taken to rectify the situation.
“This outreach initiative also offers an opportunity for early diagnosis and intervention to reduce the burden of chronic conditions,” he said, adding that Botswana had been experiencing an increase in the burden of NCDs across most age groups.
Dr Dikoloti also expressed gratitude to the ALF team for their support, noting that their collaboration dated back to 2008 when they first partnered in flying medical specialists to remote areas.
“The name Airborne Lifeline says it all! ALF is a lifeline to many communities in the most remote parts of Botswana where access to specialised services is a challenge,” he said.
Dr Dikoloti also noted that since inception AFL had flown more than 400 health workers who have treated around 22 000 patients as well as shipped hundreds of kilogrammes of medications, in particular, ARVs and other HIV related commodities.
For his part, president of Airborne Lifeline Foundation, Mr Johnathan Miller said he had his heart in Botswana to save lives of many people.
Mr Miller said he reached out to the ministry to assist with the transportation of COVID-19 vaccinations to hard-to-reach areas.
He said with that they managed to facilitate the full vaccination of 33 per cent of the tourism sector within the Ngami, Okavango and Ghanzi District Health Management Teams.
He added that even hard to reach villages and settlements in the Central Kgalagadi which proved challenging destinations to reach due to environmental conditions were covered during the vaccination campaign.
For her part, the US deputy chief of mission, Ms Amanda Jacobsen said the AFL partnership would allow Airborne to help reach some of the remotest areas within a short space of time.
Ms Jacobson also said the partnership was in sync with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that emphasised universal health coverage.
She noted that the first flight under the renewed partnership started with eight medical specialists from Gaborone to Hukuntsi in the Kgalagadi North DHMT.
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