Potchefstroom: A delegation from the government of the Republic of Namibian has today concluded their two-day benchmarking visit to the North West Department of Health and the North West University. Led by Ms Taimi Amaambo who is from the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services. The delegation commended the province’s clinical programmes, health technology and human resources capacity particularly in specialised clinical areas at Klerksdorp-Tshepong Hospital Complex.

The first day of the visit started with the National Department of Health outlining the country’s approach to human resource for health, highlighting the strategic plan for health with a detailed presentation on recruitment, training and retention of personnel including specialists and general health workers.

Speaking on day two of this visit, Dr Luvuyo Bayeni who is the Chief Director for Human Resource management said that, “the reason we chose North West was for us as a country to showcase the journey that the Provincial Health department and North West University has undergone to develop the medical school, to enhance teaching for undergraduate and how we manage the postgraduate through medical internship because we believe that the North West province has the best model that not only the country but other countries can learn from”

The North West Department of Health representatives led by DDGs for Hospitals and Clinical Support Services and that of District Health Services as well as Technical Advisors presented the North West service delivery offerings. The presentation covered tertiary service platforms, training platforms, twinning and dual appointments with universities, employee and wellness programme as well as the medical school project.

The DDG for Hospitals and Clinical Support Services, Mr Polaki Mokatsane believes that the benchmarking went very well. “I believe that the objective of understanding how our health system works which is what the Namibians were looking for was achieved. This was an interaction which was beneficial to both parties. We also learnt from them how to improve on governance and ethics as well as dealing with challenges of a long bureaucratic process in our system”, said DDG Mokatsane.

North West University presented a model of cooperation with the Department of Health and highlighted joint medical school programme as a model that continues to improve health services particularly at clinical level in the province. Speaking on behalf of the university, Professor Petra Bester who is the operation lead for the university’ school of medicine said that the need for cooperation is necessitated by the fact that we have the same disease burden. “It is important that the cooperation is strengthened as it benefit all of us in terms of exchanging expertise, research and this can extent to our Namibian counterparts”.

Professor Binu Luke who is the lead person for the North West Medical School project and the Technical Advisor for Hospitals and Clinical Support is confident that the province has demonstrated its capacity. “We were able to showcase our premier institution of leaning and teaching which is Klerksdorp-Tshepong Hospital. We believe that the Namibians have been able to learn from our areas of excellence”, said Professor Binu Luke

The Namibian delegation concluded their visit on a positive note. “We are honoured as the Namibian delegation to have been hosted by both the North West Department of Health and the North West University. The partnership between the department and the university is purposeful and driven by the need to service the nation. So we have learnt a lot in that regard. We realise that here is a lot we can implement back home. Some lessons like that of the medical school are long term but at-least we can start planning. There are however immediate human resource practices that we think can benefit us in the short terms as we want to increase our workforce”, concluded Ms Taimi Amaambo

END.

Enquiries Mr Tshegofatso Mothibedi Spokesperson 0735035045 / 0605673513

For any further information: Ms Keletso Ratlhagane Deputy Director: Media Relations 0609801091 ksratlhagane@nwpg.gov.za

ISSUED BY NORTH WEST DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH