Human resources for health in Botswana : the results of in-country database and reports analysis
Date
2014-11
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AOSIS Publishing
Abstract
Background: Botswana is a large middle-income country in Southern Africa with a population
of just over two million. Shortage of human resources for health is blamed for the inability
to provide high quality accessible health services. There is however a lack of integrated,
comprehensive and readily-accessible data on the health workforce.
Aim: The aim of this study was to analyse the existing databases on health workforce in
Botswana in order to quantify the human resources for health.
Method: The Department of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry
of Health, Ministry of Education and Skills Development, the Botswana Health Professions
Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Botswana and the in-country World Health
Organization office provided raw data on human resources for health in Botswana.
Results: The densities of doctors and nurses per 10 000 population were four and 42,
respectively; three and 26 for rural districts; and nine and 77 for urban districts. The average
vacancy rate in 2007 and 2008 was 5% and 13% in primary and hospital care, respectively, but
this is projected to increase to 53% and 43%, respectively, in 2016. Only 21% of the doctors
registered with the Botswana Health Professions Council were from Botswana, the rest being
mainly from other African countries. Botswana trained 77% of its health workforce locally.
Conclusion: Although the density of health workers is relatively high compared to the region,
they are concentrated in urban areas, insufficient to meet the projected requirements and
reliant on migrant professionals.
Description
CITATION: Nkomazana, O., et al. 2014. Human resources for health in Botswana: The results of in-country database and reports analysis. African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine, 6(1): 1-8, doi: 10.4102/phcfm.v6i1.716.
The original publication is available at http://www.phcfm.org
The original publication is available at http://www.phcfm.org
Keywords
Health services accessibility -- Botswana, Medical care -- Botswana, Medically underserved areas -- Botswana, Human resources -- Botswana, Medical personnel -- Supply and demand -- Botswana
Citation
Nkomazana, O., et al. 2014. Human resources for health in Botswana: The results of in-country database and reports analysis. African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine, 6(1): 1-8, doi: 10.4102/phcfm.v6i1.716