Scottish Livingstone Hospital, also known as Molepolole Hospital, is a government-run

district hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

located in

Molepolole Molepolole is a large village in Kweneng District, Botswana. The people who reside in Molepolole are called Bakwena, who are one of the eight major tribes in Botswana. The Bakwena Kgosi (Chief), Sebele I was among the three chiefs who went to En ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

, from

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Gaboron ...

History

The hospital was built in 1933 by the

United Free Church of Scotland The United Free Church of Scotland (UF Church; gd, An Eaglais Shaor Aonaichte, sco, The Unitit Free Kirk o Scotland) is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and ...

. It opened the following year on 3 September, and Dr Sheppard was the first doctor. At the time, the hospital only held 20 beds.

Facilities

In order to combat the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic, the government opened a new hospital building in November 2007. The new building, built by Arup, hosts 350 beds and features high-tech heating and cooling systems. The hospital houses an Infections Disease Care Clinic that offers

antiretroviral therapy The management of HIV/AIDS normally includes the use of multiple Antiviral drug, antiretroviral drugs as a strategy to control HIV/AIDS, HIV infection. There are several classes of antiretroviral agents that act on different stages of the HIV life- ...

. Most of the doctors speak only English while the patients speak mostly

Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu language family within the Sotho-Tswana branch of Zone ...

. Thus, medical care is usually given through a translator. The number of doctors and amount of medical equipment is limited: There is only one

x-ray machine An X-ray machine is any machine that involves X-rays. It may consist of an X-ray generator and an X-ray detector. Examples include: *Machines for medical projectional radiography *Machines for computed tomography *Backscatter X-ray machines, used ...

and no

radiologist Radiology ( ) is the medical discipline that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide their treatment, within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiatio ...

. There are long wait times to see a doctor, and the

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

department is mostly run by

midwives A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; con ...

References

External links

Botswana Ministry of Health
1934 establishments in Bechuanaland Protectorate Hospitals in Botswana Hospitals established in 1934 {{Botswana-struct-stub

History

Facilities

See also

References

External links