Introduce helipads at hospitals for better healthcare

It has been widely reported before that the health sector is short on critical supplies such as medicine and related equipment.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, we experienced bed shortages, while bed sheets appeared old and had clearly not been replaced in a long time, among other things not reported.

Looking closely at what we lack as far as hospital service support for people living across Namibia – services that can be lifesaving to many – I have noticed that there are no operational helipads at any of our hospitals countrywide.

It is interesting to consider why our hospitals do not have any aviation modes of assistance in a country that has a high number of road accidents, especially during holiday seasons.

How do we introduce systems in hospitals that will enable the swift transfer of patients within lifesaving time via air?

There are doubts about whether the current government is really considerate about the well-being of the populace. This situation is made worse because of the absence of helipads at hospital facilities such as Katutura Hospital.

This despite the fact that just a few metres across the road, the Swapo Party headquarters is equipped with a helipad, but the country’s largest hospital does not have such a facility.

I have heard about ideas of air ambulances in recent years, but it seems as if the idea never materialised due to a lack of support and failure to avail resources.

With that said, it begs the question as to how the ministry responsible for aviation and the health ministry plan to roll out ideas of this nature in order to boost the much-lauded healthcare for all. Little has been done to upgrade our public health facilities that we inherited at independence – this paints a grim picture of how seriously we take healthcare in this country.

Upgrade and expand healthcare

We need to ask ourselves whether we are content with merely maintaining what we found in place and if we are satisfied with what we have built so far.

But be that as it may, one cannot downplay the importance of helipads at our hospitals to ensure that universal healthcare is not only rhetoric but something that can be turned into reality.

In northern Namibia, we have Onandjokwe Hospital, considered to be one of the first major medical facilities in that part of Namibia.

The facility is strategically placed to cater for the area's patients, who are often treated there and subsequently referred to regional hospitals (Windhoek Central Hospital, Katutura Intermediate Hospital, Oshakati State Hospital, Rundu Intermediate Hospital, etc.) before they can receive referrals from state doctors to see specialists who are often based in Windhoek.

This brings us back to the question: what have we done as a country to ensure quality, broad-based healthcare provision? Attempts to build clinics to reach those in remote areas cannot go unnoticed, but when one ponders deeply on this, one will arrive at the realisation that we will not be able to provide the best healthcare to our people if we do not construct hospitals equipped with the necessary tools in order to promote universal healthcare.

We have an overwhelming number of unemployed doctors, but there seems to be no solution to this crisis simply because we failed to build hospitals to meet the high public demand; instead, we often profit from the health sector.

The health sector procurement system has become a major burden because resources are not optimally used to develop the sector.

Better resources

We must therefore prioritise the construction of health facilities and equip them with supporting infrastructure and resources such as helipads, ambulances in each constituency, and medicine. The empowerment and capacitating of health inspectors is also crucial to developing the health system, provided they are not victimised when they flag shortcomings in the system.

This, however, can be made easier by developing and building state hospitals with all the facilities to ensure efficiency in operations and for the sake of the development and well-being of the Namibian people across the country.

This piece is not limited to addressing a lack of helipads but also to motivating decision-makers to be people-centric and, for the most part, to provoke thoughts for the betterment of the country.

Purpose of helipads:

Tourism: Helicopters are often used to take tourists to remote or difficult-to-reach places, such as the Namib Desert or the Skeleton Coast.

Medical evacuation: Helicopters can be used to quickly transport patients to hospitals in cases of emergency.

Search and rescue: Helicopters can be used to search for and rescue people who are lost or injured in remote areas.

Business: Helicopters can be used to transport executives and other VIPs between different locations.

Government: Helicopters are used by the Namibian government for a variety of purposes, such as border patrol and disaster relief.

- Captain Nelson Tuhafeni Kalangula is a former Namibian air force helicopter pilot, an aviation safety and aircraft accident investigation certificate holder, and an author in the making with a bachelor of commerce honours and B-tech business administration in academic qualifications.