Alfred Madigele

“We have partners in the form of countries that we have agreements with, that is Cuba and Mauritius so far, and if we don’t get them in Botswana we are going to recruit them from these countries.”

“Upgrading a hospital is not simply the change of a name, it involves upgrading equipment and making sure that it is right and suitable for the hospital of that nature. This include Human Resource and specialists in the form of support stuff and requisite HR.”

“Botswana is a vast country but sparsely populated, so it is important that we have these focal referral facilities.”

“We have seen hemorrhage funds for the past years as the Botswana referred patients to South Africa, so we saw the need to increase our hospitals.”

“We are also going to hire specialists that are commensurate with a referral centre, for instance with a minimum basic package of two gynecologists, two surgeons, two anaestheologists, two orthopedic specialists and others much needed, per hospitals.”

“We have budgeted for machines like; CT scans and to upgrade theatres, so that operations across all disciplines can take place.”

“We have a tertiary care problem in Botswana. At the moment, we have only three referral hospitals, Nyangabwe and Princess Marina Hospital for general special care and Sbrana in Lobatse, which serves as a psychiatric hospital and the two specific medical tertiary facilities being Princess Marina and Nyangabwe hospitals are faced by congestion.”

““Through this event it is evident that Botswana Ash recognizes the value of wellness of its employees, their families and the community at large. I must say, a healthy and productive employee comes from a good background of a healthy and a well family, and this to a great extent is also influenced by the environment within which they live in.”

“We need to continue with our strategy and make sure that we do not fall back. However we still have a challenge of lifestyle diseases. Lifestyle diseases are those that are encouraged by our way of life, that is what we eat, the rate at which we do our physical activity, awareness or consciousness of our health status.”

“Early detection has proven to be effective in saving many lives from diseases such as cancer. I therefore encourage all of you to make it a habit to do regular checks and tests, specifically to detect any of these diseases.”

“The four common and modifiable risk factors that increase the chances of developing non-communicable diseases are tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol. Let us note that metabolic or biological factors such as high blood pressure or hypertension, overweight or obesity, raised blood cholesterol and raised blood sugar are predictors of non-communicable diseases.”

“I would like to reiterate that industry linked research is one of the elements that contribute to the diversification of the economy by generating new ideas which are invented to create services and products.”

“Innovation engenders prosperity, economic growth and new jobs, leading to the absorption of unemployed into the labour market thus making them productive and contributing towards the cycle of building and strengthening the economy.”

“it is mainly through innovation and research that new areas of economic growth are identified, exposed and brought to the fore.”

“here is an issue of poor infrastructure, shortage of facilities or poor functioning of boilers, I will ensure there are proper facilities and infrastructure in place.”

“So I will make sure that I use this opportunity to boost their attitude to work. Service in hospitals is not poor because we are understaffed, we have enough employees, they just need motivation.”

“I am happy because many people are excited that I am back in the ministry.”

“Staff welfare is very important; we need to focus on improving our staff welfare. When employees are not happy they will not render good service.”

“We need more specialists in the country because these referrals are siphoning a lot of funds from our coffers. We don’t need to change any policy but we have to review these cases and make sure we have the return on investment.”