Gaborone — Botswana has made strides in improvement of the health system through provision of robust network of facilities, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has said.
He was giving a keynote address during a panel discussion on Next Steps Towards Stronger African Health Care Capacity, including Prevention, Detection and Treatment at the ongoing US-Africa Business Summit in Tlokweng yesterday.
President Masisi said every Motswana, regardless of where they lived, travelled no more than eight kilometres to the nearest health facility. "As such, we anticipate that with the level of infrastructure that we have, we are in a better position to reposition our health system for the future," he said.
However, he said a lot needed to be done in order to reach the desired level of self-sufficiency, adding that the country still experienced shortage of health personnel, especially in highly specialised areas.
In that regard, the President said government was working tirelessly to ensure that many health professionals were trained to achieve universal health coverage and targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
He said through the Reset Agenda, the country aspired to attain Vision 2036, which pointed to a healthy and prosperous nation. "Our recently introduced Reset Agenda emphasises the importance of saving our people's lives from COVID-19 and all other illnesses. These are the visions we aspire to attain as a country," he said.
This, President Masisi said, would not be achieved without building a resilient healthcare system that anchored on self-reliance and on the spirit of health diplomacy, centred on partnerships.
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In particular, he said, the US had been instrumental in Botswana's success in the health sector. "Their assistance and facilitation especially in the fight against HIV, remains unparalleled," he added.
Dr Masisi further said COVID-19 had showed the need for stronger African health care system in order to defeat and manage future health emergencies.
He said the pandemic also accorded the country an opportunity to introspect on its strengths, identify weaknesses and leverage on lessons learnt.
He added that Botswana did well in responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which was evidenced by its early achievement of the UNAIDS 2030 goal of 95-95-95 as well as achieving the silver tier for the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV.
BOPA
