Bostwana's Minister of Health, Professor Sheila Tlou, awarded medals to 69 nurses in recognition of the contributions they made and continue to make to the health and development of Botswana. We present extracts of her statement.
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Bostwana's Minister of Health, Professor Sheila Tlou |
"The health care delivery system throughout the world is faced with many challenges, especially human resource challenges. Our continent, Africa, is the hardest hit as most of its health professionals migrate to seek ‘greener pastures’ elsewhere.
We have had to come together, as Ministers of Health of the African Union, to acknowledge that our health care systems are severely challenged as we face a growing range of health needs and financial constraints, all exacerbated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the shortage of health human resources.
Key among our resolutions is to advocate and ensure that at least 15 per cent of our national budgets are allocated to the Health Sector, to collaborate with each other and with developed countries, to train more health personnel, to advocate for improved work environments within our resource limited settings, and to adhere to ethical recruitment strategies.
For Botswana, we are not quite as hard–hit as some of our sister countries. Despite our challenges and limited resources, we have maintained a health care delivery system that is the envy of many countries around the world.
We are that innovative that we are used by other countries for benchmarking on a number of indicators such as sexual and reproductive health, immunization coverage, ARV and PMTCT uptake, drugs and supplies, and the whole area of Primary health care: promotion, prevention, treatment, care and support.
Our government places great importance on finding solutions to the problem of out-migration of health personnel. Despite our resource constraints, we are one of the only four countries in Africa that spend at least 20 per cent of the budget on Health and HIV/AIDS.
This has had the effect of improving our resources, hence the ongoing improvement of working conditions such as: renovation of hospitals, staff housing, provision of drugs and equipment, including sheets, blankets and pillows, increased training of personnel, career mobility, the continued upgrading of hospitals and other health facilities, as well as the fact that, within the continent, we do offer competitive salaries and allowances.
By presenting awards and setting aside a day in Botswana as Nurses Day, our Government has recognized the contributions that nurses have made and continue to make to the health and development of this country.
I want to commend the Nurses Association of Botswana for their collaboration with the Ministries of Health and Local Government on many health projects. I especially like to emphasize the many activities implemented under their Caring for the Caregivers programme and the recently started “Workplace violence in the health sector project”, which aims to sensitize health personnel, employers and the community at large, about occupational hazards such as violence and abuse and to develop and implement risk reduction strategies to promote safe working environments.
The Nurses Association of Botswana advocates for quality nursing care, and for the socio-economic welfare of the nurse.”
Profile of Professor Sheila Tlou Bostwana's Minister of Health