Own Correspondent
23rd August 2022
The 450 bed Hospital with 450 beds and an area of 89000 m2 has been officially launched and is expected to open its doors from the 1st September 2022 it has been revealed.
Its mandate is to provide medical education, research and clinical care. The facility was conceived in the 1980s and was built following the recommendations from the presidential task force of 1989 comprising of the then Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Education (MOE) and University of Botswana (UB).
“The task force was convened to address the issues of shortage of healthcare professionals in Botswana and to recommend remedial measures. This resulted in the Construction of the facility which started in 2010 and was completed in 2014. In 2015 the Hospital was positioned as a quaternary facility at the Apex of the healthcare hierarchical system in Botswana,” said Dr Ishmael Mokone, Commissioning Manager for Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital.
He said, “SKMTH was initially called Botswana University Hospital, actually before then it was referred to as the Academic Teaching Hospital. However, in 2018 the Hospital was renamed as Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital after our former 2nd President.”
SKMTH is registered as a company Limited by Guarantee with the sole guarantor being the Government of Botswana. It has a Board of Directors, appointed by the Minister of Health, that provides strategic oversight and guidance to the Hospital.
SKMTH is not for profit although it will run under commercially driven principles.
The Hospital has a Private-Cooperative Model of operation with the University of Botswana. This Model positions the facility as a standard benchmark of academic excellence, research, and medical education in the region as well as contribute to human capital development and economic diversification.
Dr Mokone said, “The model of operation was identified following extensive consultation with various experts in the health field, desktop reviews as well as benchmarking exercises in the region and internationally.”
The vision for SKMTH is “to be the industry standard of excellence in the provision of healthcare services, research and teaching to improve health outcomes.”
The ultimate objectives of the hospital include:
- Offering a comprehensive array of value-based healthcare services to deal with endemic and emerging healthcare problems in Botswana.
- Being a Training hub for health professionals through University of Botswana as well as other partners.
- Being a Research Hub to provide evidence based medical care, guide public health policy and direction.
- Being a fully accredited facility through regional and international accrediting bodies to ensure quality services and highest levels of patient care and safety.
- Establishing a facility offering a filmless and paperless service among others.
When fully operational the facility is expected to help address health care challenges in the country such as rising levels of non-communicable disease, shortage of healthcare personnel especially doctors and allied health professionals, retention of healthcare providers and rising cost of healthcare which is exacerbated by referral of patients to the private facilities both locally and externally.
When fully functional the hospital is anticipated to have a workforce of more than 1000 employees.
The prioritization of services to be introduced in SKMTH was made taking into account the challenges the health sector is currently facing being
- the high cost of these services and their scarcity on the market and
- Morbidities as well as Mortalities attributable to lack or inadequacies of these services
Other factors considered in introducing services at SKMTH include:
- Capacity to generate revenue for SKMTH hence potential for self-sustenance.
- Ease of staff availability (i.e. Collaboration with main partners e.g. UB, Botswana- Baylor Children’s Clinical Centre for Excellence)
- Building on COVID 19 service momentum
- Readiness of key Interdependencies (e.g. pharmacy, laboratory)
This resulted in categorization of the introduction of services into four Phases (Phase 1,2,3 and 4). The phase 1 being high priority areas for the country.
The commissioning exercise is anticipated to take at least 4-5 years to successful achieve the final phase (phase 4) which is the refinement of certain services into what may be called centers of excellence. These centers of excellence include:
- Comprehensive cancer care
- Critical care (adult, pediatrics and neonatal)
- Trauma and Burns
- Renal and Organ transplant
- Cardiovascular
- Ophthalmology
The first Phase has started as the hospital has now been licensed to offer health care services.
The first service to be opened is our State – of the Art Radiology Department on the 1st September 2022. There will be a mini –launch, the details of which will be shared with you in due course.
The SKMTH Radiology Department will provide medical imaging services for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes for all inpatients and outpatients. All pieces of equipment make use of PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System) for storing, processing and viewing images.
Available services:
- General Radiography
- Ultrasound
- Computed Tomography (CT) scan
- Fluoroscopy
- Mammography
- Angiography
- Interventional Radiology
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) (3T)
- Bone Mineral Densitometry
Studies provided include:
- All medical examinations including those for first time employment
- Early disease detection including all cancers
- Medical imaging for all types of injuries including sports injuries
- Gynaecology and obstetrics examinations.
- Routine screening for breast and prostate cancers
- Polytrauma imaging
- Theatre imaging services
The next suite of Phase 1 services will be provided in the last quarter of the 2022 with Radiation Oncology billed for the first quarter of 2023. We will advise you as soon as those services are commencing. Some of the Phase 1 services are:
- Intensive Care Services (Neonatal, Paediatrics and Adult);
- Renal services (Adult and Paediatrics);
- Laboratory;
- Pharmacy;
- Radiation Oncology;
- Haematology and Medical Oncology Services; and
- Accident and Emergency service
- Emergency surgical services
- Some allied Health Services
It is now clear that COVID cases have become very sporadic and as such there is need for SKMTH to shift from having a separate COVID project and integrate it into the normal operations of the Hospitals. The first COVID-19 admission was in 2nd February 2020 and the first confirmed case was on 29/3/20.
COVID-19 date for Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital is as follows-
- 4176 admissions
- Recoveries 3071 (75%)
- Death 1105 (42.5% of national mortality)
- Active cases 1
Basemani Bogopa, Board Chairman for Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital, said “I would like to begin by highlighting that Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital(SKMTH) is a company limited by guarantee wholly owned by the Government of the Republic of Botswana. The Governance structures of the Hospital are such that the operations of the company are overseen by a Board of Directors comprising of 10 directors. The Directors comprise a multidisciplinary team with vast experience in key areas, both in the private and public sector to allow for adequate oversight over the institution.“
He said, “The Management of SKMTH is directly responsible to the Board, who in turn is also directly responsible to the sole shareholder being Government through the Ministry of Health.”
