About Lesotho School Of Medicine
The country developed an interim National Development Plan that outlines the current key challenges and issues facing Lesotho. The objectives outlined in this document include the development of human skills and infrastructure. A strong human resource base is the foundation for the attainment of the Lesotho Vision 2020; a national goal achievement requires the full engagement of the health and social welfare sector. Quality health care shall be efficiently and equitably delivered through sound health systems and social welfare guaranteed for all Basotho.
Good health is one of the principal human rights for the people of Lesotho. Therefore, the Government is committed to the full realization of this right within the shortest time possible. Acute shortage of qualified health professionals is an impediment in the progress to attainment of improved health for the Basotho through the attainment of health related millennium development goals. The major challenges to these noble goals include HIV/AIDS and high maternal mortality and that of the new born, which are both entwined with critical shortage of human resources for health.
The concept of establishing a Medical School in Lesotho has been on there for more than thirty years. In establishing the School of Medicine, the Government of Lesotho would have taken a big step towards addressing the human resources for health challenge in a sustainable manner. The aim of the program is to introduce training of medical doctors in Lesotho while simultaneously strengthening the existing training of a wide constellation of other health professionals.
Retention and sustainability shall be inbuilt through the proposed concurrent introduction of postgraduate training targeted at retaining existing medical doctors in Lesotho who do not have specialization opportunities locally as well as biomedical scientists. The two groups of professionals; the biomedical scientists and the clinical specialists shall form the critical mass of future instructors of the Lesotho based training programmes.
The development/refurbishment of clinical physical infrastructure; training, recruitment and retention of biomedical and clinical professionals; as well as ensuring adequate budgetary provisions for the operational costs are daunting challenges for the nation. Other challenges include the equipping and transforming hospitals in the ten districts into suitable teaching facilities. The mission of the health and social welfare sector in Lesotho is to facilitate the establishment of the system that will deliver quality health care efficiently and equitably and to guarantee social welfare. This noble purpose cannot be realized without the judicious application of sound human resources for health, a challenge that the sector is still grappling with.