The P596 million Bokamoso Private Hospital is due to open in November. Associated Fund Administrators (AFA) Managing Director, Kabelo Ebineng, revealed this at the launch of the AFA branch in Francistown on Friday.
The hospital will have a 300-bed specialist facility and a 30-bed semi autonomous rehabilitation centre. It is a brainchild of Botswana Public Officers’ Medical Aid Scheme (BPOMAS) and the Pula Medical Aid Fund Trust (PULA), both of which are administered by AFA.
The private hospital will offer services that are not available locally like kidney dialysis and cardiovascular operations, thereby relieving Batswana of the burden of traveling to neighboring countries at high cost to seek such services. It will also offer care for trauma and orthopedic patients. The facility will also offer educational and training opportunities for Batswana through technical collaboration with University of Botswana and the Institute of Health Sciences.
Situated on the outskirts of Gaborone, the state of the art hospital is a partnership between BPOMAS, PULA, Operating Room International Limited Liability Company (ORI) of New York, and Vanderbilt University Medical Centre (VUMC) of Nashville, Tennessee, both from United States of America. The partnership has been hailed as a milestone in Botswana as it will avail a wealth of experience in developing and managing hospitals, given the Americans’ experience in running a variety of hospitals in different settings and economic environments. The partnership will also avail clinical and health care skills and services that would otherwise be unavailable in Botswana.
The hospital is also expected to increase choice and variety in medical care thereby bringing down the cost of heath care in the country. The development of the private hospital has been hailed as a move in the right direction as it will improve patient care, enhance the training of personnel in specialized areas, and expand the menu of services available within this country, thereby furthering Botswana’s pursuit of becoming the medical hub in the region.
Ebineng said that they met a fair amount of hurdles in establishing the hospital as some felt that BPOMAA and PULA should not be involved in care delivery but should rather stick to their role of funding.
“But we firmly believe in the notion of self reliance and development, and we feel that it is a move in the right direction for us to be able to provide affordable health care and variety, at the same time decongesting the scant medical facilities available in Botswana” he said.
