Local health fraternity all set for ‘Med ball’
In the wake of the devastating global pandemic, coronavirus, which compounded to already other existing challenges faced by health expects, there are attempts by some local health pioneers to join forces for the greater good.
Dubbed ‘THE MED BALL’, an inaugural event has been scheduled for November 18 2022, at Boipuso Hall, which aims to bring the health industry players together to an evening of networking, dinner and dance. Traditionally, medical colleges, doctors and students get together once a year at a gala dinner event to socialize and network, a tradition which the Med ball Botswana takes leaf from. Speaking during a stakeholder engagement held in Gaborone on recently, patron of the event Dr Ntlhe Seketeme shared that the aim of the initiative is to bring together health professionals, students of various health professions, health professional bodies, training institutions, hospitals, health care funders, pharmaceuticals industry players, government, private sector as well as the media under one roof of a relaxed environment for a good course.
“The health industry is vast and has unique challenges. The recent COVID 19 Pandemic has taught us that we cannot operate in silos. As health professionals we need to come together. The broad health industry needs to come together.We need to leverage on each other in order to solve the various challenges that our sector faces,” Dr Seketeme shared. He added that community health outreach is one of key practices which can enable the health community to combat many of their challenges and coming together under one roof as health practitioners could yield desired outcome in their bid to promote healthy living. According to Dr Seketeme,some of their community outreach programs were unfortunately disrupted by the outbreak of COVID19 pandemic which they are now aiming to resuscitate. “As passionate as we are towards community outreach, we do face challenges when we engage the community. It is through The Med Ball that we hope we can extend the network of our professionals for outreach programmes. We hope to bring more partners with us who can help by coming on board with resources towards the benefit of the communication,” he said.
Furthermore, he emphasized that The Med BALL aims to empower at three levels, the first one being; the empowerment health professionals through networking amongst themselves, creating linkages, mentorship networks and seamless patient care pathways that can be created.
The second level will focus on empowerment for the broader Health Industry, providing an opportunity for various stakeholders to engage in conversations that are intimate and would enable solutions based approach to various challenges that the sector faces. The third’s emphasis will be empowerment of the community, including participating in the community outreach projects. Dr Seketeme noted that most areas of the country health care resources are limited and it is through strategic partnership with government that private sector can help alleviate some of the resource constraints.