Date: 10/06/2004
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: G Ramokgopa: Gauteng Provincial Media Briefing, June 2004
GAUTENG PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT MEC BRIEFINGS, MEDIA STATEMENT BY HEALTH MEC, DR GWEN RAMOKGOPA, 10 June 2004
Thank you for granting us the opportunity to give you a preview of the plans we have to improve public health care in the province over the coming five years.
These plans will result in a fundamental paradigm shift from planning and policy formulation to actual implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programmes that will make a difference in the lives of the poor, women, children, the disabled and the vulnerable. We will streamline our systems and process to achieve greater service delivery. We want to combat corruption, inefficiency, poor performance and promote the ethos of Batho Pele through our Patients Rights Charter and the Service Pledge.
We will expect every unit, every manager and every employee to comply with norms and standards. We will act decisively to improve services, protect patients' rights and build on the 82% satisfaction rate that our clients have indicated to us in a survey we undertook in 2002. To us one unhappy patient is one too many.
At the centre of all our plans is the desire to assist the poor to live a better life in our province and our country.
Our major focus in the coming five years will be on preventing, management and treatment of diseases of poverty, trauma and violence and chronic diseases of lifestyle such as hypertension and diabetes.
Obesity rates are very high in our province and this is regarded as one of the risk factors for developing hypertension, diabetes and other lifestyle related illnesses. A baseline study conducted in 1998 indicated that 30.29% of males and 60.7% of females in Gauteng are obese and overweight. Healthy eating practices and exercise will receive most attention in dealing with this risk factor.
Next month we will undertake a mass campaign to immunise children against preventable disease such as polio and measles. The campaign, which will cost R5 million, will be launched in Olivenhoutbosch on 26 July. The campaign will be in addition to the regular immunisation programme that is carried out in clinics. We want to reach every child in our province and we aim to administer 2 million doses of vaccine.
Whereas in the past children used to die from infectious childhood diseases such as measles, today cases of measles are rare and children are no longer dying of this disease. Since 1994, the department has carried out a series of mass immunisation campaigns to eliminate polio and measles with the aim of declaring Gauteng polio free by 2005, in line with the national target.
The Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) will ensure that coverage is improved. Immunisation coverage is now at about 80%, which is above the national average.
In line with the decision of national government to introduce community health workers, the province will introduce 3000 well-trained community health workers over the next three years. The programme will be launched at the end of July this year and will be implemented in phases.
We will pay special attention to the quality of service at all public hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities. We do not wish any patient to leave any of our facilities unhappy and together with communities we will monitor the quality of service and take corrective action where services do not meet acceptable standards.
In opening the legislature the Premier promised that a toll free hotline will be launched to deal with complaints. It is my pleasure to inform you that the service is now available and the number is 0800 203 886. At this stage it operates during business hours only, but we will be looking at extending it to after hours.
This is in addition to other initiatives we have undertaken to improve the quality of care in our facilities. A quality assurance directorate has been established to follow up all complaints and ensure improved quality of care and hospitals have quality teams that ensure adherence to quality standards. The Accreditation Committee, an independent body, has been appointed to monitor adherence to standards.
We will focus on training those employees who are the first point of contact with our patients and will continue with our Khanyisa Service Excellence Awards to encourage and acknowledge innovation in service delivery among our employees.
Improving access to care for the poor will remain our top priority in this term. The supply of drugs to clinics and hospitals, the availability of staff and the building of new facilities will receive attention.
I want to assure the people of Gauteng that there is no drug shortage in this province. My experience has been that whenever there have been problems, those have been administrative and operational.
Our clinics have experienced a phenomenal increase in patient visits since 1994. The total number of visits per year has grown from one million to 10 million. At the same time hospital admission has increased to over 720 000 patients per year and 4 million outpatients visits are made to hospitals per year.
To address increasing pressure on our services and to ensure our capacity to provide quality healthcare services to all our people, we will be recruiting about 2300 new health professionals every year over the next five years.
To ensure that we bring services closer to where people live, we plan to build 10 new clinics. These clinics will be built in Soshanguve, Eersterus, Orange Farm, Eldorado Park, Randfontein, Atteridgeville, Evaton, Orlando, Boikhutsong and Cullinan. These projects will cost R68 million.
I am pleased to inform you that a contractor is already on site to start building the new Mamelodi Hospital. It is envisaged that the construction of this hospital, which will cost R157 million, will be completed in the 2008/09 financial year. The construction of the new Zola Hospital and the hospital in the Kathorus area, are still in the planning phases.
The construction of the new Pretoria Academic Hospital is nearing completion and we hope to open it in this financial year.
We will continue to focus on the disabled ensuring that the receive wheelchairs and hearing aids. This year we will distribute 1640 wheelchairs, 550 hearing aids and 700 artificial limbs. We pleased that we have been able to eliminate the backlog of wheelchairs in the province.
HIV and AIDS continue to place a heavy burden on families, community and the health sector. There is still no cure for the disease and we are called upon to respond to this epidemic in a comprehensive manner focussing on education, prevention, counselling and testing, care, treatment and management.
Our prevention programmes such as the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission Programme, the Post Exposure Prophylaxis, condom distribution programmes will be strengthened.
The Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission Programme has been extended to all public hospitals and clinics with obstetric services.
The service that we introduced in 2002 to reduce the risk of HIV infection to victims of sexual violence is helping us to save the lives of women and children. Since its introduction, more than 15 000 people have been attended to. To further strengthen this service, we trained 39 nurses and four doctors in clinical forensic medicine. These professionals will assist in ensuring that appropriate treatment is given to victims and that evidence is properly gathered to secure conviction of perpetrators of these heinous crimes. We will be training more doctors and nurses in this field in this financial year.
Our concern is that 25% of people who present themselves for this service arrive after the three days prescribed period has expired. The majority of them, up to 62%, are children who have bee abused repeatedly.
I want to make a plea to families and communities to help us to get to these children before it is too late. We must all adopt a mantra that says "Every child is my child" and we must work together to put and end to this scourge.
In April this year we introduced antiretroviral therapy into our comprehensive Aids treatment programme. As we have said before, this programme will be available in 15 hospitals and 8 community healthcare centres by March next year. By that time 10 000 patients will be on the antiretroviral therapy treatment at all the accredited sites.
We will be decisive in ensuring that to improve our services and protect
For more information contact: Simon Zwane
Tel: (011) 355-3543
Cell: 082 551 9892
Issued by: Department of Health, Gauteng Provincial Government
10 June 2004
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: G Ramokgopa: Gauteng Provincial Media Briefing, June 2004
GAUTENG PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT MEC BRIEFINGS, MEDIA STATEMENT BY HEALTH MEC, DR GWEN RAMOKGOPA, 10 June 2004
Thank you for granting us the opportunity to give you a preview of the plans we have to improve public health care in the province over the coming five years.
These plans will result in a fundamental paradigm shift from planning and policy formulation to actual implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programmes that will make a difference in the lives of the poor, women, children, the disabled and the vulnerable. We will streamline our systems and process to achieve greater service delivery. We want to combat corruption, inefficiency, poor performance and promote the ethos of Batho Pele through our Patients Rights Charter and the Service Pledge.
We will expect every unit, every manager and every employee to comply with norms and standards. We will act decisively to improve services, protect patients' rights and build on the 82% satisfaction rate that our clients have indicated to us in a survey we undertook in 2002. To us one unhappy patient is one too many.
At the centre of all our plans is the desire to assist the poor to live a better life in our province and our country.
Our major focus in the coming five years will be on preventing, management and treatment of diseases of poverty, trauma and violence and chronic diseases of lifestyle such as hypertension and diabetes.
Obesity rates are very high in our province and this is regarded as one of the risk factors for developing hypertension, diabetes and other lifestyle related illnesses. A baseline study conducted in 1998 indicated that 30.29% of males and 60.7% of females in Gauteng are obese and overweight. Healthy eating practices and exercise will receive most attention in dealing with this risk factor.
Next month we will undertake a mass campaign to immunise children against preventable disease such as polio and measles. The campaign, which will cost R5 million, will be launched in Olivenhoutbosch on 26 July. The campaign will be in addition to the regular immunisation programme that is carried out in clinics. We want to reach every child in our province and we aim to administer 2 million doses of vaccine.
Whereas in the past children used to die from infectious childhood diseases such as measles, today cases of measles are rare and children are no longer dying of this disease. Since 1994, the department has carried out a series of mass immunisation campaigns to eliminate polio and measles with the aim of declaring Gauteng polio free by 2005, in line with the national target.
The Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) will ensure that coverage is improved. Immunisation coverage is now at about 80%, which is above the national average.
In line with the decision of national government to introduce community health workers, the province will introduce 3000 well-trained community health workers over the next three years. The programme will be launched at the end of July this year and will be implemented in phases.
We will pay special attention to the quality of service at all public hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities. We do not wish any patient to leave any of our facilities unhappy and together with communities we will monitor the quality of service and take corrective action where services do not meet acceptable standards.
In opening the legislature the Premier promised that a toll free hotline will be launched to deal with complaints. It is my pleasure to inform you that the service is now available and the number is 0800 203 886. At this stage it operates during business hours only, but we will be looking at extending it to after hours.
This is in addition to other initiatives we have undertaken to improve the quality of care in our facilities. A quality assurance directorate has been established to follow up all complaints and ensure improved quality of care and hospitals have quality teams that ensure adherence to quality standards. The Accreditation Committee, an independent body, has been appointed to monitor adherence to standards.
We will focus on training those employees who are the first point of contact with our patients and will continue with our Khanyisa Service Excellence Awards to encourage and acknowledge innovation in service delivery among our employees.
Improving access to care for the poor will remain our top priority in this term. The supply of drugs to clinics and hospitals, the availability of staff and the building of new facilities will receive attention.
I want to assure the people of Gauteng that there is no drug shortage in this province. My experience has been that whenever there have been problems, those have been administrative and operational.
Our clinics have experienced a phenomenal increase in patient visits since 1994. The total number of visits per year has grown from one million to 10 million. At the same time hospital admission has increased to over 720 000 patients per year and 4 million outpatients visits are made to hospitals per year.
To address increasing pressure on our services and to ensure our capacity to provide quality healthcare services to all our people, we will be recruiting about 2300 new health professionals every year over the next five years.
To ensure that we bring services closer to where people live, we plan to build 10 new clinics. These clinics will be built in Soshanguve, Eersterus, Orange Farm, Eldorado Park, Randfontein, Atteridgeville, Evaton, Orlando, Boikhutsong and Cullinan. These projects will cost R68 million.
I am pleased to inform you that a contractor is already on site to start building the new Mamelodi Hospital. It is envisaged that the construction of this hospital, which will cost R157 million, will be completed in the 2008/09 financial year. The construction of the new Zola Hospital and the hospital in the Kathorus area, are still in the planning phases.
The construction of the new Pretoria Academic Hospital is nearing completion and we hope to open it in this financial year.
We will continue to focus on the disabled ensuring that the receive wheelchairs and hearing aids. This year we will distribute 1640 wheelchairs, 550 hearing aids and 700 artificial limbs. We pleased that we have been able to eliminate the backlog of wheelchairs in the province.
HIV and AIDS continue to place a heavy burden on families, community and the health sector. There is still no cure for the disease and we are called upon to respond to this epidemic in a comprehensive manner focussing on education, prevention, counselling and testing, care, treatment and management.
Our prevention programmes such as the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission Programme, the Post Exposure Prophylaxis, condom distribution programmes will be strengthened.
The Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission Programme has been extended to all public hospitals and clinics with obstetric services.
The service that we introduced in 2002 to reduce the risk of HIV infection to victims of sexual violence is helping us to save the lives of women and children. Since its introduction, more than 15 000 people have been attended to. To further strengthen this service, we trained 39 nurses and four doctors in clinical forensic medicine. These professionals will assist in ensuring that appropriate treatment is given to victims and that evidence is properly gathered to secure conviction of perpetrators of these heinous crimes. We will be training more doctors and nurses in this field in this financial year.
Our concern is that 25% of people who present themselves for this service arrive after the three days prescribed period has expired. The majority of them, up to 62%, are children who have bee abused repeatedly.
I want to make a plea to families and communities to help us to get to these children before it is too late. We must all adopt a mantra that says "Every child is my child" and we must work together to put and end to this scourge.
In April this year we introduced antiretroviral therapy into our comprehensive Aids treatment programme. As we have said before, this programme will be available in 15 hospitals and 8 community healthcare centres by March next year. By that time 10 000 patients will be on the antiretroviral therapy treatment at all the accredited sites.
We will be decisive in ensuring that to improve our services and protect
For more information contact: Simon Zwane
Tel: (011) 355-3543
Cell: 082 551 9892
Issued by: Department of Health, Gauteng Provincial Government
10 June 2004
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