Date: 30/08/2004
Source: Department of Health
Title: M Tshabalala-Msimang: Biannual Report on work of WHO in African Region
INTERVENTIONS BY HON DR TSHABALALA MSIMANG ON THE BIANNUAL REPORT OF THE WORK OF THE WHO IN THE AFRICAN REGION, CONGO BRAZZAVILLE, 30 August 2004
Chairperson
I would like to join my colleagues in congratulating the Regional Director and his team for the excellent and well-written report presented to us on the work of the Regional Office in the past year.
While the report is excellent in many respects, there are a few omissions without which it would have been much more accurate. The most significant of these is its silence on indoor residual spraying for the control of the malaria vector. It is also a matter that I have raised on many occasions at this Committee, particularly as it has achieved remarkable results in the control of malaria in our part of the continent.
Essential Drugs and Medicine Policy
We appreciate the work done by the Regional Office on EDM, and also efforts made by the member states to improve their pharmaceutical services to provide equitable access to good quality, safe, effective, and affordable essential medicines.
South Africa has been working to bring down the price of medicines by removing all kinds of perverse incentives in the procurement chain as well as in the prescribing of medicines, as; in general, these incentives tend to push up the price of medicines. Our latest strategy in this regard has been to regulate the price of medicine by prescribing a single exit price from the manufacturer for each medicine, and allowing for standardised administrative and prescribing costs such that any single medicine will cost exactly the same regardless of what facility and from which part of the country it is purchased. Needless to say, Chairperson, this will have an enormous impact, particularly, on the poorer people of our country as it will improve their ability to access medicines.
The pharmaceutical retail industry brought a case against the Department of Health on the matter of the single exit price for medicines. Significant in these efforts made by South Africa in this matter is that on Friday, 27th August; the High Court handed down judgement in favour of the Department on the case.
Another important point in pursuit of Good Practice, in the dispensing of medicine is that we have just passed regulation to implement a law in South Africa that every professional who dispenses medicine must be licensed to do so, and that licence can only be obtained after satisfactorily sitting an exam set by the Pharmacy Council. This not only ensures that all professionals have the required competencies to dispense, but also that the dispensing skills are standardised. So far since the law came into effect on 2nd July 2004, 3 100 of the 8 500 dispensing doctors have gone through the relevant training course and successfully passed the exam. Another 4 000 are in training.
This was also one of those battles we had to go court to win and convince the public that it was for the good of the general population.
Regarding the issue of traditional medicine, the National Traditional Medicines Reference Centre was launched in South Africa on 31st August 2003. The centre is spearheading work on traditional medicines for HIV, malaria and diabetes. To support this centre, the Department of Health has established a unit with a dedicated budget and is also funding research into traditional medicines by the Medicines Research Council. We have since launched three (3) more provincial traditional medicine reference centres. We would like to appeal to WHO for assistance to make sure that these centres are successes.
On the sub regional front, SADC has established a committee consisting of Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe to coordinate collaborative work on traditional medicines. Once again, we hope that WHO will assist in this initiative.
Immunisation
The Expanded Programme on Immunisation has focused on strengthening polio and measles control. Experience has shown us that there are advantages in approaching immunisation campaigns from a regional level as this leads to raised awareness and increased coverage. This has been well illustrated through the Intercountry Co-ordinating Mechanism between Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland.
The SADC subregion is still committed to the certification of the region as polio free in 2005. In that regard, the decision of the SADC Ministers of Health to hold a regional immunisation campaign against polio was endorsed by the SADC Heads of State in Mauritius, earlier this month. SADC will be appealing for assistance from the WHO to be able to coordinate this regional immunisation campaign.
We remain alive to, and prepared for the threat of resurgence of polio due to the instability in some parts of the continent.
Inaccurate reports of cases of measles that came up in one of our provinces recently highlighted the need to strengthen health systems, specifically, health information systems. We have recently undertaken a comprehensive review of our health information system and we are also looking at practical strategies to improve our reporting and use of information by managers.
However, the fact that there were no deaths during the measles outbreak points to good case management, showing that some aspects of the health system that are working well.
Our immunisation monitoring and surveillance programs indicated the need for constant attention to laboratory services. We are therefore reinforcing the support of our National Health Laboratory System to the EPI program. Health Promotion:
I commend the Regional Office for the excellent work they are doing in health promotion and I would like to thank both the AFRO and Geneva Offices, for the assistance they provided to South Africa in the development of our national Health Promotion Policy. The development of the policy was a multi-stakeholder process, which included public and private health sector institutions, non-health sector institutions and Non Governmental Organisations.
In our new National Health Strategic Priorities for 2004 -2009 we have prioritised Health Promotion for the realisation of our objectives in the prevention of diseases, in enhancing healthy lifestyles and improving the health literacy of our people. We believe that this investment in health promotion will pay dividends later.
A concrete achievement in supporting the goal of a health lifestyle will be the release of regulations on the labelling and advertising of alcohol and alcohol products.
Human Resources
As evidenced by the long history of the resolution on Human Resources on Health adopted in 1998, human resources is a complex subject that has occupied this Regional Committee for some time. During this period we have found many innovative ways to overcome the problems of brain drain facing the Region.
Through our concerted pressure on developed countries, the concept of not recruiting from developing countries has taken root. Following on the adoption of the Commonwealth Code on Recruitment of Health Workers, and the agreement we have signed, the United Kingdom has recently made further commitments to make recruitment transparent so as not to disrupt the health services in our countries. We are looking forward to signing similar agreements with other countries.
In a bid to close the gap between requirements for health professionals and the capability to produce and retain these professionals, we are embarking on the training of mid level workers, for both the nursing and medical professions, as well as other categories of health workers.
In conclusion, Mr President, South Africa is satisfied with the progress made by the Regional Office in the past year.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health
30 August 2004
Source: Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.za)
Source: Department of Health
Title: M Tshabalala-Msimang: Biannual Report on work of WHO in African Region
INTERVENTIONS BY HON DR TSHABALALA MSIMANG ON THE BIANNUAL REPORT OF THE WORK OF THE WHO IN THE AFRICAN REGION, CONGO BRAZZAVILLE, 30 August 2004
Chairperson
I would like to join my colleagues in congratulating the Regional Director and his team for the excellent and well-written report presented to us on the work of the Regional Office in the past year.
While the report is excellent in many respects, there are a few omissions without which it would have been much more accurate. The most significant of these is its silence on indoor residual spraying for the control of the malaria vector. It is also a matter that I have raised on many occasions at this Committee, particularly as it has achieved remarkable results in the control of malaria in our part of the continent.
Essential Drugs and Medicine Policy
We appreciate the work done by the Regional Office on EDM, and also efforts made by the member states to improve their pharmaceutical services to provide equitable access to good quality, safe, effective, and affordable essential medicines.
South Africa has been working to bring down the price of medicines by removing all kinds of perverse incentives in the procurement chain as well as in the prescribing of medicines, as; in general, these incentives tend to push up the price of medicines. Our latest strategy in this regard has been to regulate the price of medicine by prescribing a single exit price from the manufacturer for each medicine, and allowing for standardised administrative and prescribing costs such that any single medicine will cost exactly the same regardless of what facility and from which part of the country it is purchased. Needless to say, Chairperson, this will have an enormous impact, particularly, on the poorer people of our country as it will improve their ability to access medicines.
The pharmaceutical retail industry brought a case against the Department of Health on the matter of the single exit price for medicines. Significant in these efforts made by South Africa in this matter is that on Friday, 27th August; the High Court handed down judgement in favour of the Department on the case.
Another important point in pursuit of Good Practice, in the dispensing of medicine is that we have just passed regulation to implement a law in South Africa that every professional who dispenses medicine must be licensed to do so, and that licence can only be obtained after satisfactorily sitting an exam set by the Pharmacy Council. This not only ensures that all professionals have the required competencies to dispense, but also that the dispensing skills are standardised. So far since the law came into effect on 2nd July 2004, 3 100 of the 8 500 dispensing doctors have gone through the relevant training course and successfully passed the exam. Another 4 000 are in training.
This was also one of those battles we had to go court to win and convince the public that it was for the good of the general population.
Regarding the issue of traditional medicine, the National Traditional Medicines Reference Centre was launched in South Africa on 31st August 2003. The centre is spearheading work on traditional medicines for HIV, malaria and diabetes. To support this centre, the Department of Health has established a unit with a dedicated budget and is also funding research into traditional medicines by the Medicines Research Council. We have since launched three (3) more provincial traditional medicine reference centres. We would like to appeal to WHO for assistance to make sure that these centres are successes.
On the sub regional front, SADC has established a committee consisting of Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe to coordinate collaborative work on traditional medicines. Once again, we hope that WHO will assist in this initiative.
Immunisation
The Expanded Programme on Immunisation has focused on strengthening polio and measles control. Experience has shown us that there are advantages in approaching immunisation campaigns from a regional level as this leads to raised awareness and increased coverage. This has been well illustrated through the Intercountry Co-ordinating Mechanism between Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland.
The SADC subregion is still committed to the certification of the region as polio free in 2005. In that regard, the decision of the SADC Ministers of Health to hold a regional immunisation campaign against polio was endorsed by the SADC Heads of State in Mauritius, earlier this month. SADC will be appealing for assistance from the WHO to be able to coordinate this regional immunisation campaign.
We remain alive to, and prepared for the threat of resurgence of polio due to the instability in some parts of the continent.
Inaccurate reports of cases of measles that came up in one of our provinces recently highlighted the need to strengthen health systems, specifically, health information systems. We have recently undertaken a comprehensive review of our health information system and we are also looking at practical strategies to improve our reporting and use of information by managers.
However, the fact that there were no deaths during the measles outbreak points to good case management, showing that some aspects of the health system that are working well.
Our immunisation monitoring and surveillance programs indicated the need for constant attention to laboratory services. We are therefore reinforcing the support of our National Health Laboratory System to the EPI program. Health Promotion:
I commend the Regional Office for the excellent work they are doing in health promotion and I would like to thank both the AFRO and Geneva Offices, for the assistance they provided to South Africa in the development of our national Health Promotion Policy. The development of the policy was a multi-stakeholder process, which included public and private health sector institutions, non-health sector institutions and Non Governmental Organisations.
In our new National Health Strategic Priorities for 2004 -2009 we have prioritised Health Promotion for the realisation of our objectives in the prevention of diseases, in enhancing healthy lifestyles and improving the health literacy of our people. We believe that this investment in health promotion will pay dividends later.
A concrete achievement in supporting the goal of a health lifestyle will be the release of regulations on the labelling and advertising of alcohol and alcohol products.
Human Resources
As evidenced by the long history of the resolution on Human Resources on Health adopted in 1998, human resources is a complex subject that has occupied this Regional Committee for some time. During this period we have found many innovative ways to overcome the problems of brain drain facing the Region.
Through our concerted pressure on developed countries, the concept of not recruiting from developing countries has taken root. Following on the adoption of the Commonwealth Code on Recruitment of Health Workers, and the agreement we have signed, the United Kingdom has recently made further commitments to make recruitment transparent so as not to disrupt the health services in our countries. We are looking forward to signing similar agreements with other countries.
In a bid to close the gap between requirements for health professionals and the capability to produce and retain these professionals, we are embarking on the training of mid level workers, for both the nursing and medical professions, as well as other categories of health workers.
In conclusion, Mr President, South Africa is satisfied with the progress made by the Regional Office in the past year.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health
30 August 2004
Source: Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.za)
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