Health in Namibia

The Ministry of Health and Social Services, commonly abbreviated as MoHSS, oversees the public health sector together with regional health directorates. Public primary health care operates through community services, clinics, health centres and district hospitals. Namibia has about 1,150 outreach points, 309 health centres and 34 district hospitals. Intermediate hospitals include Katutura, Oshakati, Onandjokwe and Rundu, while Windhoek Central Hospital serves as a national referral hospital. More than 200 private facilities provide additional services. The Namibia Master Health Facility List helps identify facilities, but opening times, staffing and available services should be confirmed locally. Outreach services can identify illness, provide basic treatment, support health education, trace people who miss follow-up, identify pregnancies and refer patients for immunisation, nutrition support or higher-level care. Public programmes cover prevention, reproductive and maternal health, family planning, child health, HIV and sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, malaria, common conditions, disability prevention and rehabilitation. Rural distance, shortages of staff and infrastructure, and regional differences can make access more difficult. At first contact, health workers use triage, meaning they assess urgency and prioritise immediate needs. Staff stabilise an emergency before transferring the patient when the required treatment is unavailable locally. A referral may lead to another public facility or a specialist service. Facilities should communicate known waiting lists, their reasons and available alternatives, but no uniform nationwide waiting-time standard has been verified. Elective and emergency surgery, maternity care, medical treatment, rehabilitation, day-patient care and overnight admission are available within the public hospital system according to local capacity. Clinical assessment can include medical history, physical examination and, where relevant, functional, nutritional, social, psychological and cultural factors. Namibia Standard Treatment Guidelines 2021 and hospital and primary-care standards guide diagnosis and treatment across the health system. Medicines are supplied through Pharmaceutical Services and Central Medical Stores under the National Essential Medicines List. Reported stock-outs mean that availability should be checked at the facility. In 2023/24, pharmaceutical services had a budget of N$1.57 billion, executed 97% of that budget and reported service-level performance of 64%; these national figures do not guarantee local availability. Mental health care includes district-hospital services, the Oshakati Psychiatric Unit for Oshana, Oshikoto, Omusati and Ohangwena, and the Windhoek Mental Health Care Centre as the national referral service. A person outside these areas generally starts at the nearest health facility and receives a referral when specialist psychiatric care is needed. Follow-up and community reintegration remain uneven, and regional capacity differs substantially. After treatment, care can continue through discharge planning, referral back to a lower level, outpatient appointments, chronic medicines, rehabilitation, palliative care or community and outreach follow-up. Facilities may trace people who stop treatment or miss appointments. Patients should keep referral and follow-up appointments where possible and bring relevant medical records, medicine lists and contact or next-of-kin details. Patients have rights to information, dignity, respectful and culturally appropriate treatment, participation in care decisions, informed consent, refusal or discontinuation of treatment and access to a complaints pathway. They should receive information about delays, waiting lists and alternatives. Under the 2025 Universal Health Coverage Policy, public services should not be refused solely because a patient cannot pay. Public facilities generally charge minimal or token fees, with exceptions that include children and older people, but the current fee table was not verified. Private care is mainly paid directly or through medical aid, and charges differ by provider and service. Namibia has no verified national health-insurance system in the available evidence. The Special Fund for Uncommon Illnesses can support certain high-cost treatments, including complex surgery, radiotherapy, dialysis and high or intensive care. Access is limited to Namibian citizens who are state patients and lack the required equipment or staff in the public system. A state doctor must recommend the case after treatment in a referral or regional hospital. The Namibia Medicines Regulatory Council, the Health Professions Council of Namibia, health-facility regulators, regional directorates and individual facilities each have different responsibilities, so the responsible contact depends on the service and location.