Africa-Press – Botswana. Construction of Tonota Primary Hospital (Level 1), which was planned for implementation under the Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP 2023-2025) and awarded to Bothakga Burrow Development Manager, has not commenced due to budgetary constraints.
Answering a question in Parliament recently, the Assistant Minister of Health Mr Lawrence Ookeditse noted that pre-construction activities such as topographic and geotechnical surveys had been completed while the designs for the hospital had not commenced. He said the project would be ready for implementation as soon as the funding issues were resolved.
Mr Ookeditse noted that Tonota District was currently serviced by clinics and health posts in the district, while patients requiring referral to a hospital were referred to Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital, which was about 35 kilometres away.
He said since improving access to healthcare services was his ministry’s mandate, constructing a hospital in Tonota would improve access to health care services in the district, nearby districts as well as the Road Traffic Accident casualties along the A1 Road. The assistant minister, therefore said the project remained one of the ministry’s priorities and its construction would be considered as soon as the country’s financial situation improved.
He was responding to a question from the Tonota MP, Mr Gaefele Sedombo who had asked the minister to state when the planned construction of Tonota Primary Hospital (Level 1) would commence since its inclusion in the approved TNDP (April 2023-March 2025).
Mr Sedombo also asked why the government did not consider undertaking the project’s pre-construction activities such as design and assessment studies now, in order to shorten the implementation period at the time when construction starts since the plot of the planned hospital had been identified. He also wanted to know what the ministry was doing to improve access to enhanced health services to residents.
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