Date: 22/03/2004
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government
Title: P Meyer: Opening of World Physiotherapist Summit
OPENING OF WORLD PHYSIOTHERAPIST SUMMIT IN CAPE TOWN BY HEALTH MINISTER, PIET MEYER, 22 March 2004
President of the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapists, Ms Agneto Lando
President of the South African Society of Physiotherapy, Ms Zola Dantile
Chairman of the Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapists Group of the South African Society of Physiotherapists, Ms Annalie Basson
Foreign and South African delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Cape Town is lucky to be getting so many firsts, but then again with so much to offer, this is not surprising. Now we are privileged to host the first world summit of the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulation Therapists (IFOMT) to be held on the African continent right here in Cape Town. I wish you all a very warm welcome to the Western Cape capital, the fairest in this beautiful land of ours. I urge you to explore and to determine this for yourselves if you have not already done so. I thank you for choosing Cape Town, I know that after your stay here you will be thanking us for having convinced you to come here!
I believe you represent at least 38 countries at this conference. This makes you a rainbow delegation and should make you feel at home as we are known as the Rainbow Nation, representing one country, but representing many different cultures and languages.
Where IFOMT is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, we are celebrating the 10th democratic anniversary of our Rainbow Nation.
South Africans have all worked hard to help establish democracy in this beautiful country richly blessed with natural abundance. We have done so with confidence knowing full well that with confidence you can reach truly amazing heights; without confidence, even the simplest accomplishments are beyond one's grasp.
Today, South Africa is celebrating Human Rights Day. It is something we would not have celebrated 10 years ago; we did not even subscribe to the Human Rights Charter then.
It is said that South Africa should play a leading role in advancing human rights on the Continent through the various structures that exist such as the African Union, The African Commission on Human Rights and the African Court. Our approach in this regard must be guided by our own history and our collective human rights commitments as a continent. I tend to agree with critics who say that there is a tendency at times to forget or to pay less attention to human rights in the desire to find solutions to conflict. I believe there is no way we can advance security or build peace at the expense of human rights.
Human Rights demands that all people have the right to equality, health care services, privacy, access to information, education, social security and social welfare. It pains me that there are certain groups who are still being discriminated against by individuals and even communities on the basis of their health status. I want to make it clear that the Western Cape health department will not deny people with HIV/AIDS their basic human rights. There are concerns that despite government policy on HIV/AIDS, too many people who are HIV-positive are still not able to access the necessary drugs and support from the State. The Western Cape already has a strategy to roll out anti-retroviral drugs to all who need it.
We have certainly come a long way in our ten years of democracy. Part and parcel of that new democracy has been rural and urban development, a growing social wage and provision for the poor.
Health has played its part in conveying the sharing principle of democracy. The focus of Health services in the Western Cape has been redirected. Primary health care is now our main focus. It is the level of healthcare which serves 90% of our people. It has been one of our priorities to bring this level within the reach of all our people. The Western Cape has the highest level of access to provincial health care services with over 4 hours per capita per year.
As minister of Health in this province it is a matter of course that the health of the people of in the Western Cape is first and foremost on my mind. Your international conference places a world focus on the Western Cape and on health services. Far be it for me to play the expert and preach to you about physio- or physical therapy. I believe there are 8 internationally renowned professionals who will be addressing various topics.
But I do want to share an observation, which I feel needs specific attention, especially in South Africa if not the world over. It all has to do with rehabilitation and about quality healthcare at primary level.
As physiotherapists this is probably also your first priority - to rehabilitate your patients and enable them to return to normal daily living including the workplace and live productive lives.
I am referring to rehabilitation services in the public sector which have, to some degree, been neglected in South Africa and until recently, also in the Western Cape where health services have always been better than elsewhere. There has not always been a real focus in the public health service on rehabilitation. Funds, or rather a lack of funds, had a lot to do with it, and still does. But I am glad to be able to say that in the Western Cape, there is already a renewed focus on rehabilitation.
To date we have relied mainly on our Conradie Hospital and its internationally renowned Spinal Cord Injury Unit. It has served the whole of the country well having tended to more than 9 000 spinal cord patients over a period of 40 years. All rehabilitation functions at the Conradie Hospital as well as those at the Karl Bremer Hospital will soon be consolidated at a new and exciting centre now in its final phase of construction. We believe that the Western Cape Rehabilitation Centre will be a rehabilitation centre of excellence. It has been established at Lentegeur in an area known as Mitchell's Plain. We will be opening this R95 million centre by August 2004.
The opening will signify the launch of a new rehabilitation era in the Western Cape and aptly so as we are right in the middle of the "African Decade of Disabled Persons".
The centre will also serve neighbouring provinces, our Red Cross Children's Hospital and our assistive devices drive which has been cutting and even terminating wheelchair and buggy backlogs in this province. We are still providing hundreds of assistive devices at nominal fees throughout the province prioritising areas where the need is the greatest.
As you have probably been informed, we are offering a tour of the Lentegeur facilities on Wednesday. Seating will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis on a 43 seater bus. As I have mentioned the centre is situated in Mitchell's Plain, a thriving, mainly Coloured community, from where many patients for our centre originate.
But despite the new centre we are still in a situation where the Western Cape cannot provide sufficient access to the entire workforce of about 2 million to all forms of occupational health services. We have work assessment centres at our provincial hospitals, but these centres are overloaded by applicants needing disability grants and who have limited access to rehabilitation services.
But we are fortunate that we have you as world experts in the field of rehabilitation services at this world summit and that some possible solutions to the challenge may arise. I am certain that we can console ourselves with the fact that we are not unique when it comes to the shortage of rehabilitation services * especially affordable rehabilitation services. I thank you in advance for your willingness to share your knowledge with South Africa during your deliberations.
We have some exciting plans of our own to improve local health care services. I have briefly referred to our focus shift in healthcare to primary health care. This shift is encompassed in our major healthcare plan called Healthcare 2010. Part of the plan is to review staff establishments. This includes the employment of additional physiotherapists, occupational therapists, occupational health nurses and other medical staff. I believe we will be able to harmonise supply and demand in the public service. At present there is an imbalance with fewer available posts than physiotherapists.
The Healthcare 2010 programme focuses on primary level health care, community based-care and preventative care providing for 90% of our patient contacts. These services will be supported by well-equipped secondary and highly specialized tertiary services. We are already well into its implementation phase and with enough faith, commitment and courage, we can, in the words of Martin Luther King: "carve a tunnel of hope through a mountain of despair."
I would like to leave you with a thought on "hope" from Pope John the 23rd who said: "Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do."
May your deliberations be fruitful. May your stay be enjoyable and may you all want to come back.
I Thank You.
Joe-Nell Heidmann
Ministerie van Gesondheid
Dorpstraat 4, KAAPSTAD
Tel: +27(021) 483 5417
Fax: +27(021) 483 4143
W-mail: jheidman@pgwc.gov.za
Issued by: Western Cape Provincial Government
22 March 2004
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government
Title: P Meyer: Opening of World Physiotherapist Summit
OPENING OF WORLD PHYSIOTHERAPIST SUMMIT IN CAPE TOWN BY HEALTH MINISTER, PIET MEYER, 22 March 2004
President of the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapists, Ms Agneto Lando
President of the South African Society of Physiotherapy, Ms Zola Dantile
Chairman of the Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapists Group of the South African Society of Physiotherapists, Ms Annalie Basson
Foreign and South African delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Cape Town is lucky to be getting so many firsts, but then again with so much to offer, this is not surprising. Now we are privileged to host the first world summit of the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulation Therapists (IFOMT) to be held on the African continent right here in Cape Town. I wish you all a very warm welcome to the Western Cape capital, the fairest in this beautiful land of ours. I urge you to explore and to determine this for yourselves if you have not already done so. I thank you for choosing Cape Town, I know that after your stay here you will be thanking us for having convinced you to come here!
I believe you represent at least 38 countries at this conference. This makes you a rainbow delegation and should make you feel at home as we are known as the Rainbow Nation, representing one country, but representing many different cultures and languages.
Where IFOMT is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, we are celebrating the 10th democratic anniversary of our Rainbow Nation.
South Africans have all worked hard to help establish democracy in this beautiful country richly blessed with natural abundance. We have done so with confidence knowing full well that with confidence you can reach truly amazing heights; without confidence, even the simplest accomplishments are beyond one's grasp.
Today, South Africa is celebrating Human Rights Day. It is something we would not have celebrated 10 years ago; we did not even subscribe to the Human Rights Charter then.
It is said that South Africa should play a leading role in advancing human rights on the Continent through the various structures that exist such as the African Union, The African Commission on Human Rights and the African Court. Our approach in this regard must be guided by our own history and our collective human rights commitments as a continent. I tend to agree with critics who say that there is a tendency at times to forget or to pay less attention to human rights in the desire to find solutions to conflict. I believe there is no way we can advance security or build peace at the expense of human rights.
Human Rights demands that all people have the right to equality, health care services, privacy, access to information, education, social security and social welfare. It pains me that there are certain groups who are still being discriminated against by individuals and even communities on the basis of their health status. I want to make it clear that the Western Cape health department will not deny people with HIV/AIDS their basic human rights. There are concerns that despite government policy on HIV/AIDS, too many people who are HIV-positive are still not able to access the necessary drugs and support from the State. The Western Cape already has a strategy to roll out anti-retroviral drugs to all who need it.
We have certainly come a long way in our ten years of democracy. Part and parcel of that new democracy has been rural and urban development, a growing social wage and provision for the poor.
Health has played its part in conveying the sharing principle of democracy. The focus of Health services in the Western Cape has been redirected. Primary health care is now our main focus. It is the level of healthcare which serves 90% of our people. It has been one of our priorities to bring this level within the reach of all our people. The Western Cape has the highest level of access to provincial health care services with over 4 hours per capita per year.
As minister of Health in this province it is a matter of course that the health of the people of in the Western Cape is first and foremost on my mind. Your international conference places a world focus on the Western Cape and on health services. Far be it for me to play the expert and preach to you about physio- or physical therapy. I believe there are 8 internationally renowned professionals who will be addressing various topics.
But I do want to share an observation, which I feel needs specific attention, especially in South Africa if not the world over. It all has to do with rehabilitation and about quality healthcare at primary level.
As physiotherapists this is probably also your first priority - to rehabilitate your patients and enable them to return to normal daily living including the workplace and live productive lives.
I am referring to rehabilitation services in the public sector which have, to some degree, been neglected in South Africa and until recently, also in the Western Cape where health services have always been better than elsewhere. There has not always been a real focus in the public health service on rehabilitation. Funds, or rather a lack of funds, had a lot to do with it, and still does. But I am glad to be able to say that in the Western Cape, there is already a renewed focus on rehabilitation.
To date we have relied mainly on our Conradie Hospital and its internationally renowned Spinal Cord Injury Unit. It has served the whole of the country well having tended to more than 9 000 spinal cord patients over a period of 40 years. All rehabilitation functions at the Conradie Hospital as well as those at the Karl Bremer Hospital will soon be consolidated at a new and exciting centre now in its final phase of construction. We believe that the Western Cape Rehabilitation Centre will be a rehabilitation centre of excellence. It has been established at Lentegeur in an area known as Mitchell's Plain. We will be opening this R95 million centre by August 2004.
The opening will signify the launch of a new rehabilitation era in the Western Cape and aptly so as we are right in the middle of the "African Decade of Disabled Persons".
The centre will also serve neighbouring provinces, our Red Cross Children's Hospital and our assistive devices drive which has been cutting and even terminating wheelchair and buggy backlogs in this province. We are still providing hundreds of assistive devices at nominal fees throughout the province prioritising areas where the need is the greatest.
As you have probably been informed, we are offering a tour of the Lentegeur facilities on Wednesday. Seating will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis on a 43 seater bus. As I have mentioned the centre is situated in Mitchell's Plain, a thriving, mainly Coloured community, from where many patients for our centre originate.
But despite the new centre we are still in a situation where the Western Cape cannot provide sufficient access to the entire workforce of about 2 million to all forms of occupational health services. We have work assessment centres at our provincial hospitals, but these centres are overloaded by applicants needing disability grants and who have limited access to rehabilitation services.
But we are fortunate that we have you as world experts in the field of rehabilitation services at this world summit and that some possible solutions to the challenge may arise. I am certain that we can console ourselves with the fact that we are not unique when it comes to the shortage of rehabilitation services * especially affordable rehabilitation services. I thank you in advance for your willingness to share your knowledge with South Africa during your deliberations.
We have some exciting plans of our own to improve local health care services. I have briefly referred to our focus shift in healthcare to primary health care. This shift is encompassed in our major healthcare plan called Healthcare 2010. Part of the plan is to review staff establishments. This includes the employment of additional physiotherapists, occupational therapists, occupational health nurses and other medical staff. I believe we will be able to harmonise supply and demand in the public service. At present there is an imbalance with fewer available posts than physiotherapists.
The Healthcare 2010 programme focuses on primary level health care, community based-care and preventative care providing for 90% of our patient contacts. These services will be supported by well-equipped secondary and highly specialized tertiary services. We are already well into its implementation phase and with enough faith, commitment and courage, we can, in the words of Martin Luther King: "carve a tunnel of hope through a mountain of despair."
I would like to leave you with a thought on "hope" from Pope John the 23rd who said: "Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do."
May your deliberations be fruitful. May your stay be enjoyable and may you all want to come back.
I Thank You.
Joe-Nell Heidmann
Ministerie van Gesondheid
Dorpstraat 4, KAAPSTAD
Tel: +27(021) 483 5417
Fax: +27(021) 483 4143
W-mail: jheidman@pgwc.gov.za
Issued by: Western Cape Provincial Government
22 March 2004
Advertisement
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
