Patience Makwele
The government has spent more than N$80 million over the past five years referring more than 4 000 state patients to private facilities for MRI scans, highlighting the cost of Namibia’s long-standing lack of public MRI services.
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah revealed the figures on Thursday during the inauguration of the country’s first government-owned and operated Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) facility at Windhoek Central Hospital.
The new facility represents a shift from relying heavily on private providers for specialised imaging, with the government having invested N$49.8 million in the MRI machine, accessories and infrastructure upgrades required to house and operate it.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the ministry of health and social services had referred more than 4 000 patients to the private sector for MRI services over the past five years, at a total cost exceeding N$80 million.
This translates to an average annual expenditure of more than N$16 million on private MRI referrals.
She said the MRI machine has an expected lifespan of about 20 years if properly maintained. Based on the historical referral expenditure, comparable private-sector referrals over that period could cost the government approximately N$320 million.
“At this historical average referral cost, the initial investment could broadly be recovered within approximately three years,” she said.
She cautioned that the calculation did not take into account the costs of staffing, operating and maintaining the public facility.
The introduction of the machine ends more than three decades without government-owned MRI capacity, despite the technology having been available in Namibia’s private sector for more than 20 years.
The gap has previously placed a significant financial burden on the state. In 2023, the health ministry was reported to be spending about N$10 million annually to source MRI services from private hospitals because no public hospital had an MRI machine.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the new facility would not only reduce government expenditure but also improve access to specialised diagnostics for patients who depend on the public health system.
“The most important return to this investment cannot be measured in monetary terms alone,” she said.
“It will be measured in earlier diagnoses, better treatment decisions, reduced turnaround times and improved outcomes for patients.”
The MRI will support the diagnosis and management of neurological, spinal, abdominal, pelvic and other complex medical conditions.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the public health system serves approximately 85% of Namibia’s population, making the availability of advanced diagnostic technology in state facilities an issue of healthcare equity.
She said patients who could not afford private medical imaging should have access to appropriate and timely investigations comparable to those available to patients with private healthcare.
The government is also planning to expand MRI access beyond Windhoek.
Nandi-Ndaitwah announced that procurement and installation of a second MRI machine at Oshakati Intermediate Hospital will commence during the current financial year.
The second machine is expected to expand access to specialised diagnostic imaging in the northern regions and reduce the need for patients to travel to Windhoek or be referred to private facilities.
The move comes as the government continues to expand specialised capacity in the public health system.
Earlier this year, Windhoek Central Hospital was described as the country’s national referral facility, receiving patients from all 14 regions for specialised services not available elsewhere in the public system.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the government had also procured CT scanners, X-ray and ultrasound machines, ECG and CTG machines, anaesthetic machines and patient monitors for distribution to health facilities.
However, she warned that purchasing advanced equipment was only the beginning.
“A machine inaugurated today, but unable to function tomorrow does not constitute development,” she said, calling for a culture of maintenance, accountability, efficiency and responsible stewardship of public assets.
She said Namibian healthcare workers had been sent to South Africa for specialised MRI training and stressed the need to continue building the skills of radiographers, radiologists, medical physicists, biomedical engineers and other professionals needed to operate and maintain advanced medical equipment.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the investment should ultimately be judged by whether it results in faster diagnoses, better treatment decisions and improved outcomes for patients.
