Date: 12/11/2008

Source: Gauteng Provincial Government

Title: SA: Hlongwa: Quarterly media briefing by the MEC for Health in Gauteng, Brian Hlongwa

As we enter the last six months of the current term of office of the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG), this is an opportune moment to reflect on the achievements of the Department of Health (DoH) and also to look ahead at the challenges and opportunities waiting in the coming months and years.

We continue to vigorously promote healthy lifestyles by implementing programmes that assist our people to take responsibility in improving their health status.

These programmes include informing and educating our people on how they can lead healthy and productive lifestyles within their means and in their own environments by managing stress; following a healthy diet; reducing the number of people who take up smoking; reducing alcohol consumption and encouraging physical exercise.

In order to reduce long queues at our clinics, we launched a Chronic Medication Distribution Project in Metsweding on 22 September 2008. Patients who suffer from chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes no longer have to collect their regular medication from clinics. Community Health Workers (CHWs) distribute chronic medication at patient's homes and monitor their condition. We will be expanding this project in the West Rand and Sedibeng in December this year.

We are on course to jerk up our Health Information System. On 20 November 2008 we will launch the Health Information System and Electronic Health Record at Sebokeng Hospital.

This will benefit patients in many ways, the most obvious of which will be better patient (and caregiver) satisfaction arising from the ability to see all the relevant medical details for that patient without (a) having to re-enter all their details or (b) having to search for the paper records, or take all the details from the patient yet again. Other benefits include:
* Hospital staff will no longer need to be trained on different systems if they move to a different hospital. This will increase staff deployment flexibility and job satisfaction and result in lower staff turnover.
* An electronic health record for each patient in Gauteng will be available across the province, where it is needed, when it is needed, by whom it is needed - with security.
* Replacement of paper records where possible, with quantifiable (increased efficiency) and non quantifiable (patient/clinician satisfaction) benefits. In the larger hospitals, paper files will be eliminated as they move to electronic records.

These will:
* Reduce the need for paper files to be kept at every site across the province.
* Reduce or eliminate the problem of lost or missing files.
* Reduce the possibility of medical errors from missing information.
* Reduce the duplication of tests and examinations.
* Improve patient satisfaction.

* Improvement and standardisation of policies, procedures across the province.

This will result in:
* Re-designed, and where possible, standardised processes and procedures to make the best use of the new technology,
* A review of current practice to ensure the most effective and efficient processes and procedures are in place,
* Improvement in data quality, gathering, accessibility and reporting,
* Standardisation of training for Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) staff - increasing flexibility for GDoH,
* Use of the latest technology - increasing flexibility, decreasing cost of ownership,
* Improved revenue collection, through revised procedures, new technology and access to advanced reporting tools,
* Improved statistical reporting using the latest tools. Using the HIS and e.HR as the base data gathering tools, all of the available data will be analysed using the data warehouse and business intelligence tools provided,
* Integration with other systems in use within the department - assisting in the development of more efficient data flows, processes and procedures,
* Replacement of current (expensive) licensing arrangements,
* Computer literacy for communities will improve for health centre and clinic staff. Many more staff than at present will be trained on computers, and have access to computers as part of their everyday workload,
* Improved drug distribution and drug use.

We have focused our energies and resources on improving maternal and child health because successful interventions at these levels have a ripple effect on the general health profile of the population. Thus:
* Our immunisation coverage of children under the age of one year stands at about 93 percent and is above the national target.
* We offer Kangaroo Mother Care Units at 98 percent of facilities that have maternity services to reduce the peri-natal mortality rates.
* More and more facilities - currently 84 percent - have introduced the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses programme to ensure the survival of children under the age of six.
* We have stepped up our screening for cervical and breast cancer as well as testing men over the age of 50 for prostate and testicular cancer.

Tuberculosis remains a serious health concern - not only in Gauteng but across our country. However, we are making measurable progress in our efforts to educate the public that early diagnosis and treatment are vital and that patients can indeed be fully cured if they follow the treatment regime to the letter.

The good news is that our Directly Observed Treatment (DOT) that supports 90 percent of patients on tuberculosis (TB) programmes is yielding excellent results. The overall TB cure rate in Gauteng has shown a remarkable improvement from 58 percent in 2004 to 75 percent in 2007/08.

I would also like to take this opportunity to commend our staff and specialists who managed to contain the Arena Virus that emerged in the past few weeks.

Our surveillance systems did not fail us in this regard and we were able to track and monitor each and every patient who was suspected of having contracted the virus.

I congratulate health care workers who took care of these critically ill patients with great diligence as well as the research community both here and abroad who managed to detect the origin of the virus and recommended the necessary steps to contain the outbreak.

This, once again, demonstrated the productive relationship that exists between the public health care sector in Gauteng, the private sector and the academic community.

We are also stepping up our surveillance programmes for other communicable diseases such as acute flaccid paralysis, malaria and measles.

Our HIV and AIDS programme continues to occupy a central position in our department's activities.

The Comprehensive Care, Management and Treatment programme is being implemented at 100 percent of hospitals in Gauteng. Allow me to detail the successes we have registered in this programme:
* 142 846 people are currently on anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment, of these 12 956 are children
* 65 facilities offer anti-retroviral treatment (These include hospitals and clinics)
* All public health facilities offer voluntary counselling and testing
* We continue to implement multi-therapy for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in all facilities which offer ante-natal care services
* The number of patients treated for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) decreased from 321 337 in 2006/07 to 237 051 in 2007/08.

We continue to stress the importance of people undergoing tests to know their health status - not only with regards to HIV and AIDS but also for ailments such as high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes.

All health facilities in the Province provide voluntary counselling and testing for HIV and more than 359 000 people were tested in the most recent financial year.

We have completed a number of infrastructure projects such as the new theatres at Kalafong, two new wards at Weskoppies and oncology (cancer) units at the newly renamed Charlotte Maxeke and Steve Biko Academic Hospitals.

Before the end of the current financial year we will see the official opening of new community health centres (CHCs); namely; Dark City in Ekangala, Phedisong in Garankuwa, and Eersterus in the East of Tshwane, and new clinics, namely, Mandela Sisulu in Soweto, Johan Deo, near Sebokeng and Imbalenhle Clinic near Orange Farm which was actually opened last Thursday.

Work is continuing on the new Natalspruit, Mamelodi and Zola hospitals.

About 98 percent of the people of Gauteng now reside within a five kilometre radius of a hospital, clinic or medical facility.

The construction of a new, revitalised Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital as a Public-Private-Partnership is one of the most ambitious projects on the department's future capital budget. The southern hemisphere's largest hospital will be transformed into an integrated, state-of-the-art, health facility.

Regarding Oral and Dental Health Services, we will be handing over 200 dentures to mostly older patients in Soweto today.

Expanding access to this service will go a long way towards improving the quality of life of the elderly.

The Gauteng Health Department has made great strides in the provision of quality health care to the people of the province since the introduction of democratic governance 14 years ago.

The plans and strategies are in place to accelerate this process in the last quarter of this financial year and following the elections of 2009.

We are mindful of the pivotal role that health services play in the government's broader vision to improve the quality of life of all our people, in the provincial objectives as set out in the Vision 2014 and in the movement towards the establishment of a Gauteng Global City Region.