Speech by the Minister of Health M Tshabalala-Msimang at the People's Assembly Bizana, Eastern Cape

Molweni,

It is always a pleasure to be in the Eastern Cape. As some of you may know I, together with the MECs from all nine provinces and senior officials from the national department as well as the nine provincial departments of health visited your province just last month. We visited health facilities in Amathole, the Nelson Mandela Metro, Chris Hani, Oliver Tambo and Ukhahlamba health districts.

In general we found that health workers were working hard to deliver services in our facilities. Off course we also found challenges. As we discuss these challenges, we often forget that we are trying to reverse 300 years of neglect and have had only 13 years, so far in which to make massive changes. We are on track but have some way to go before we can say that we are satisfied with progress made in improving the health system.

As the people of this area know better than most of us, people are healthy if they have good food, clean water, proper sanitation, education, adequate housing and jobs. Even if we provide first class health services, poor people will get sick more often than necessary. This means that we must all, together focus on eliminating poverty as fast as we can. We must ensure that our children go to school, that they are immunised against infectious diseases, that they eat well and have plenty of exercise. It is also important for adults to take care of their health too. We must eat healthy foods, exercise, stop smoking (or do not start if we have not started), do not participate in risky behaviour such as alcohol and drug abuse as well as unsafe sex.

Similarly, the elderly must also take steps to protect their health and if they are sick from chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension, then we must ensure that we also take our medication as prescribed by the nurse or doctor. Last year, many people in the Qawukeni Local Service Areas were diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB). This is clearly one of the health problems in this area and we need to do everything we can to prevent TB from spreading. In addition, when we have symptoms of TB such as coughing for more than two weeks, we must go to the nearest clinic. If the nurses and doctors say you have TB, remember it is a disease like any other. However, you must take the medication for six months even if you feel better after a few months.

As a community we must ensure that we help people to get treatment if they have TB and that we help patients to complete their treatment. Equally important is to prevent the spread of TB by doing these simple things, cover your mouth with your hand or a tissue when you cough. Also open doors and windows as far as possible to ensure that air circulates this is important in taxis and buses as well as schools, churches and our homes.

One of the biggest problems with TB is that patients do not complete their treatment. This results in the person not being cured and also developing resistance to the drugs. Once a person is resistant, the treatment becomes more difficult and expensive. Government spends R400 for treating ordinary TB. When a patients defaults treatment and develop multi-drug resistant TB, the cost dramatically increase to R24 000 which includes hospitalisation and more expensive drugs. That is why we have to strengthen prevention of these complications as much as possible.

The same is true of HIV. The best thing we can do for ourselves, our families and the community is to prevent the spread of HIV; abstain, be faithful, or use a condom. These are the best ways of stopping the spread of HIV. We also have to ensure that we strengthen our immune systems by eating nutritious and balanced foods. It is therefore important that as a community we should have vegetable gardens. The public health system also provides treatment, care and support there are five sites in this area that are providing comprehensive care for people with HIV and AIDS.

However, it is very important for the community itself to stand together to prevent HIV and to provide care and support to anyone who is sick in line with our values of Ubuntu. Anyone who is sick from whatever illness must be supported to get better or to be as comfortable as possible. It is within this context that the Department of Health provides financial support to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that provide home based care and we strengthening the community health worker programme.

The Department of Health will also do its part to assist the community of Bizana. As you know there are two district hospitals in the area: Saint Patrick's and Greenville Hospital both of which are being improved to make them a better place to both seek treatment as well as for health workers to work. In addition, this area has 18 clinics, 37 mobile sites with two mobile teams and an Outreach Team. Two of these clinics, Imizizi and Qobo Clinics are being prepared to function as a Community Health Centres. I was really pleased to learn that 16 of these clinics have food gardens.

In order that we extend the reach of our clinics in this area, there are both health promoters and community healthcare workers attached to our clinics. They are here to help you to both prevent illnesses and to assist when people are sick. For example they will assist people with TB to ensure that they take their medication. We know that some clinics in this area still do not have electricity. The department is working with Eskom and the Department of Minerals and Energy to electrify the clinics that are within five kilometres radius from the Eskom Line and to strengthen non grid, solar energy to clinics that are far from Eskom connectivity.

In addition, the clinics that do not have access to water and sanitation are already part of the project to ensure that these backlogs are eliminated. Some of our clinics still have gravel roads from the main road. We are also attending to this in partnership with the Department of Transport. I am informed that attempts are being made to improve access to emergency medical services in the area. There are two satellite bases in the Area with 14 ambulances and total of 27 Emergency Management Services (EMS) personnel.

However given the poor road infrastructure and the vastness of the area, clearly this is not enough. We have to continue to make efforts to reduce the response times for ambulances in this area. At least seven schools in this area are Health Promoting Schools which means that they focus on health and wellbeing as part of the school curriculum. These are: Mlindazwe Junior Secondary School (JSS), Khanyayo JSS, Ncingo JSS, Bekameva JSS, Matwebu JSS and Chief Dumile Senior Secondary School. It is very important for our learners to be taught how to keep themselves healthy and to learn life skills.

In conclusion, we have already seen a vast improvement in the provision of services in this area and as I said there are plans to further develop the health services to make them more accessible to the communities. However, health services can only do so much, individuals, families and communities also need to be our partners in ensuring that the people in this area are healthy.

Enkosi!

Issued by: Department of Health
18 September 2007