Bokamoso embarks on open heart surgery

In what will be a landmark achievement for Botswana’s healthcare, Bokamoso Private Hospital has embarked on an open heart surgery project that is set to benefit both locals and non-citizens alike.

Having achieved their ground breaking surgery on August 13 on 21-year old Merapelo Busang of Thamaga, the hospital has since done four other successful heart surgeries that were all executed on September 16, according to the hospital’s spokesperson, Mosa Letsweletse. It is against this success that Lenmed Health Bokamoso Private Hospital will now officially launch the surgery project this Friday morning at Blue Tree in Maruapula, Gaborone.

“As a country we have a challenge of inadequate health services that include major procedures on different heart-related disorders. Batswana have been forced to go to other countries because of the lack of proper  health facilities and skills in place to perform operations such as open heart surgery,” Letsweletse told The Midweek Sun.

Health and Wellness minister Dorcas Makgato is set to officially launch the project at an occasion that will also be graced by the Lenmed Health directors from South Africa, as well as other stakeholders from other sectors such as the medical insurance, mines and even other hospitals in the region.

Letsweletse told The Midweek Sun in an interview that although the surgery will involve some doctors from South Africa, the majority of those involved will be citizen specialists. “For ensuring that there is transfer of skills to the citizens, the surgery team will constitute 80 percent of locals. The doctors from South Africa will come into the country as and when they are needed,” she said.

The local doctors on the project include ICU Anaesthetist Dr Thapelo Namanyane and other surgical ward staff among them Edith Baitse, Betina Monageng, Nonofo Ditlamelo, Aobakwe Motlhaping and Beauty Khani. Foreign specialists in the team include Dr Richard Schulenburg, a Cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr Johan Pretorious, a Cardiovascular Perfusionist, as well as Dr Jan-Hendrick Potgieter.