In 1946, the Medical Association of South Africa had affiliated with the British Medical Association. The document of affiliated plainly stated that the Protectorate of Bechualand, Basutoland and Swaziland would remain in the sphere of the Medical Association of South Africa. Thus, all medical professional activities, whether academic or otherwise, in Bechualand were done under the umbrella of the Medical Association of South Africa. The polical situation generated by the Apartheid regime in South Africa, however, made even professional affliations and collaboration difficult to the extent that they virtually ceased. The arrival of the independence for Botswana (Bechualand) in 1966 stimulated a desire to establish a formal association of doctors in Botswana.In July 1967, Dr Ian Kennedy, therefore, wrote directly to the British Medical Association and the Medical Association of South Africa to enquire about the possibilities of affiliating to one or the other of these organisations.
The more profitable avenues seemed either affiliated to the British Medical Association or the formation of a branch of the British Medical Association, as had happened in Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda and Lesotho. However, the balance of advice favoured the formation of an independent association. This consensus was endorsed by doctors in Botswana. Dr. Kennedy, the first Government Specialist Surgeon, assumed responsibility for drafting a constitution for the proposed association. A general clinical meeting of Medical Officers was held on Friday 19 July 1968, at which a draft Constitution for the association was put forward. The draft document was debated, discussed, ammended and finally accepted unanimously by all participants present. The Medical Association of Botswana was formally inaugurated at a General Meeting held on at Princess Marina Hospital on Friday the 20th of September 1968.
A principal objective of the new Association was to provide a programme of continuing education for doctors through the media of clinical meetings and presentation of scientific clinical and research papers by eminent guest speakers. For many years, the Association was the sole vehicle for continuing education for doctors. A second objective of the Association was to represent the interests of doctors in negotiations with Government and other official bodies within the country.
In late 1969 and early 1970, the first dentists arrived in the country to work in Missions Dental Service in Gaborone and at the Baptist Mission in Francistown. As a direct result of these arrivals of members of a closely related profession, a meeting of the Botswana Medical Association was held on 22nd May 1970 at which approval for admission of dentists of membership of the Botswana Medical Association was endorsed. The participants at this meeting also approved a proposal that the name of the Association be changed to the Medical and Dental Association of Botswana (MDAB). At the first scientific congress, the theme was: Recent advances in Medicine. Dr Mike Condon was appointed chairman. The congress took place in the auditorium of the National Museum and Art Gallery in March 1976. Seven speakers from abroad and two from Botswana presented papers.
There was much lively discussion and the congress was a great success, setting the pattern for what subsequently became the Annual General Meeting and Scientific Congress of the Botswana Medical and Dental Association. The Association grew from strength to strength both in terms of membership as well as continuing professional education and other social activities under the umbrella of this voluntary professional fraternity.
Ironically, however, as the numbers of both doctors and dentists, grew, the dentist gradually felt disenchanted and proposed the formation of a separate professional body. Eventually, in 2001, the dentists split from the medical and Dental Association and registered themselves as a separate entity with the registrar of Societies despite all efforts of doctors to dissuade the move. For three angonising years, it became apparent that all efforts to dissuade dentists and encourage them to remain in the Medical and dental Association of Botswana had proved fruitless. The medical doctors, therefore, unwillingly accepted this “professional divorce” without official protests. On 26th June 2004, at a Special General Meeting, called in accordance with provisions of the Constitution of the Medical and Dental Association of Botswana, the proposal to change the name of the association to the Botswana Medical Association was unanimously approved and subsequently endorsed at the 35th Annual General Meeting of the Association.
At the 35th Annual General Meeting, a resolution was passed which stated: “We, the Members of the Medical and Dental Association of Botswana, in convention assembled at the 35th Annual general Meeting of the Association, held in Palapye, do hereby make the following resolution, that the change of name of the professional Body, formerly known as the Medical and Dental Association of Botswana to the Botswana Medical Association, which came into effect on 26th June 2004 at a duly convened Special General Meeting, is hereby endorsed by the plenary session of the 35th Annual General Meeting of the Association, and that the “constitutional amendments approved at the Special General Meeting held on 26th June 2004, along with the formulated new Regulations, are hereby endorsed by this session”. This brought to an end the agonizing and painful unstable relationship of the two organisations. Thereupon, the executive council was mandated to register the change of name with the registrar of Societies in accordance with the statutes of Botswana and those of the Constitution and Regulations of the Botswana Medical Association.
A new chapter had thus, officially and formally, though painfully, been written in the history of the professional fraternity of medical and health care-givers. The Botswana Medical Association left the doors opened for the return of the dentists, if they so desired. Special clauses, one in the Constitution and one in the regulations, gave Affiliate Membership status to any dentist or group of dentists who wished voluntarily to become members of the Botswana Medical Association. It is the hope of the executive Council and Members of the Botswana Medical Association to continue to hold dialogue with dentists about this issue now and in the next few years to come. The main objective to continue to held dialogue with the dentists is re-unification. There are far too few medical and dental practitioners in Botswana to justify the existence of separate organizations. Secondly, there are and have been no major differences of aims, objectives and strategies of the two associations to warrant formation of two professional entities. Splintering of the few professionals in Botswana will only result in weakening the positions of all these minor associations. In unity, there is strength and strong organisations have greater and better chances of success in negotiations with the Health Authorities. At the moment, however, there is no turning back; only the future will testify to the justification for the formation of two separate professional organizations at the higher echelons of health professionals in Botswana.