Honourable Speaker of the Provincial Legislature, Mr Supra Mahumapelo,
Honourable Premier: Mme Thandi Modise,
Hon Members of the Executive Council,
Hon Members of the Legislature,
Your Worship Executive Mayors and Mayors of our Municipalities,
Hon Leaders of Political Parties,
Our esteemed Traditional Leaders,
The Acting Director-General and other Heads of Administration in Government,
Acting Head of the Department, Mr Andrew Kyereh,
Leaders of Labour Federations, Civil Society, Faith Based-
Organizations and business,
Comrades and friends,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Dumelang Bagaetsho ba Porofense ya Bokone Bophirima!
Honourable Speaker and the House; allow me to start by paying tribute to my predecessor, the late and former MEC for Health and Social Development, Mme Rebecca Onewang Kasienyane. We will forever remember her contribution towards improving the health of our people. May her soul rest in peace!
I stood before this august house in May last year as I reflected and embraced a 100 year revolution of the health care system. My reflection was a tribute to the people’ struggle for access to health care services which has been led for years by the African National Congress (ANC) and supported by other progressive forces of the world. One of our liberation icons, Joe Slovo has once said, “the ANC, we believe, stands at the head of the whole liberation front, the whole Mass Democratic Movement”.
It is not a coincidence that we are a generation that is witnessing a collision of moments in time and historical turn of events. Just last year, the ANC turned 100 years old which we equated to a 100 year revolution of the health care system. Yet again, it is not a coincident that just a year later in 2013 we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and reaffirm Africa's commitment to the ideals of continental unity and quest for Africa's renewal.
As we begin to reflect on the work of the ANC led-government since 1994, we believe a true reflection of the 20-year health care service delivery epoch will reveal that a lot has been done to improve the health of our communities. We will also realise that the people’ struggle for universal access to health care by all our people continues to be led by the ANC government.
Yes, there is still a lot more to be done and that is why we enter the 2013/14 health care service delivery environment inspired by the gains of past 19 years and geared to rigorously work towards the vision of universal access to health care.
Honourable Speaker and members of the Legislature, I present to you the North West Department of Health budget allocation for 2013/14 which is shared by our eight (8) key programmes along the Medium Term Expenditure Framework period.
Let me bring it to the attention of the House that our budget for compensation of employees has been reduced by R10m in the 2013/14 allocation. This implies pressure on this economic classification in the next financial year.
Earmarked funds, already included in the baseline, pose a serious challenge for the department as they result in a reduction in the allocations of other programmes for the entire MTEF. The following, which have been implemented as directed, from 2013/14 to 2015/16, are a case in point:
- Phasing in of Forensic into the equitable share with an allocation of R44 287 million; R46 678 million and R48 966 million
- Supplementary for infrastructure funds of R33 858 million; R35 686 million; and R37 435 million.
Honourable Speaker and House; we promised to undertake a number of infrastructure projects and create local jobs in the process. I am happy to report that the Honourable Premier, Mme Thandi Modise made a sod turning for the new Bophelong Psychiatric hospital.
The fencing has been completed and construction has begun and progressing well. Phase 1, which constituted the construction of Bulk Earthworks, is now complete and 100 jobs were created. Phase 2, which constitutes the construction of Forensic and State Patients’ ward, is currently underway. The project started in November 2012 and it is envisaged to create 220 local jobs. It is important to note that the 800 local jobs that were planned to be created out of this project were a total number of jobs when the project was not phased.
The constructions of Buxton and Tweelingspan clinics and Sekhing Community Health Center (CHC) started in October 2012 and were expected to create a total of 250 local jobs. I can report that there are currently 110 people employed in the two (2) clinic projects and more will be employed at various levels of the projects.
Designs for the extension and renovation of Mmabatho and Excelsius Nursing Colleges are complete and are being reviewed at National. The two projects are envisaged to create 650 local jobs. The four Nursing Schools (Taung, Moses Kotane, Potchefstroom and Lichtenburg) will create a total of approximately 600 jobs. The designs for these projects are complete.
The renovation of Job Shimankana Tabane hospital started in October 2012 and already 65 local people have been employed. The construction of Mathibestadt CHC in Bojanala has also started. Eighty five (85) local people are currently employed in the project. Other construction tenders finalized for 2013/2014 include Madibe a Makgabana Clinic, extensions to Boitekong Community Health Center, Lekgopung Clinic and Mosweu Clinic.
Honourable Premier Thandi Modise reported that the Brits Hospital had reached 96% towards completion in the State of the Province Address. I can report to the house that the practical completion of Brits Hospital is now at 100%. We are in the process of finalizing procurement of medical equipment for that hospital and will soon be officially opened in the current financial year.
I appreciate that the Maintenance budget has been increased as directed. Our health facilities are in dire need of maintenance and the increased allocation will rectify this unpleasant situation. One of the things that will improve maintenance of our facilities is the Maintenance Policy which we intend to conclude in the 2013/14 financial year. As a turn-around strategy, we plan to have the Term Contract in place so that the districts can be at liberty to use the services of the contracted service providers.
Tender document has already been drafted. Drafting of the specifications has been a challenge but with the Term Contract, we believe we will be in a much better position to fully spend our maintenance budget in the 2013/14 financial year.
Honourable Speaker and the House, ours is an essential service to fight diseases, save lives and increase the life expectancy of our nation. President Jacob Zuma said in the State of the Nation Address that “increased life expectancy is a key to the country’s development.” He further said diseases of lifestyle are on an alarming increase and urged all South Africans to work together to combat and lower the levels of smoking, harmful effects of alcohol, poor diets and obesity.
We promised to establish Multi Drug Resistant Tubercolosis (MDR TB) Units in all the districts and intensify public education on TB defaulters. We succeeded with establishment of these units in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati and Dr Kenneth Kaunda Districts. The MDR units are still to be established in Bojanala and Ngaka Modiri Molema Districts as we await renovations of identified MDR wards.
We continued to improve on HIV & AIDS Management with increased accessibility of the service through expansion of ARV services to all facilities. I can report that there is significant progress in initiating patients at CD4 count of 350 but this is continuous as new patients come on board. As at end of December 2012, 181 557 patients were initiated on treatment since programme inception in 2003.
Honourable Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has announced the introduction of the ground breaking fixed dose combination (FDC) therapy to treat HIV during the National Health Budget Speech presentation. This new pill is cost effective. It used to cost us R313.99 per patient per month to provide ARVs. With the FDCs, it is now costing us only R89,37 per patient per month.
We started with all stable patients and non-complicated patients after consultation with their clinicians. We have also started administering it to all newly diagnosed patients that are eligible to be put on ARV treatment, pregnant women and HIV positive breastfeeding mothers. Those currently receiving ARV treatment will be switched to the new pill at a later stage.
Only 17 facilities out of 332 are still awaiting final accreditation now. We also improved on management of care givers’ payment by decentralising it with necessary support and succeeded to decentralize conditional grant for HIV & AIDS for it to be managed at district level.
HIV prevalence in the province has increased from 29.6% in 2010 to 30.2% in 2011. The red flag has been raised in Bojanala District which moved up from 29.3% to 33.9%. Dr Kenneth Kaunda District dropped 37% to 36% while Ngaka Modiri Molema District dropped from 25.9% to 24.9%. We celebrate a significant drop in HIV prevalence in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati from 24.3% to 20.5%.
We first introduced the GeneXpert machine in our province at Klerksdorp and I am happy to report that we have now expanded this innovative initiative to Taung, Potchefstroom, Nic Bodenstein, Job Shimankane Tabane, Ganyesa, Joe Morolong and Mahikeng Provincial Hospitals. This will surely help improve our TB cure rate as we are now able to obtain test results within two hours. MDR will be further decentralized to Bojanala and Ngaka Modiri Molema in 2013/2014.
We will upscale advocacy and social mobilization for the improvement of HCT, Male Medical Circumcision (MMC) and condom distribution uptake towards reduction of new HIV infections. I wish to acknowledge the enthusiasm of some of our traditional leaders including Kgosi Kopano Simon Lekoko of Tshidilamolomo and Kgosi Nyoko Motlhabane of Batlhaping in Taung who have already requested to be assisted with the MMC service. This augurs well for our sustained partnerships in healthcare.
The department has started to conduct immunization campaign against polio and measles, and vaccination against H1N1 for high risk individuals in pursuit of the global, regional and national initiatives for polio eradication, measles elimination, and reduction of influenza related morbidity and mortality respectively. These initiatives have a major contribution on attainment of millennium development goals and it is underway.
Honourable Speaker and the House; we are on course to saving mothers and babies at birth. Maternal mortality rate in South Africa has declined from 176\100 000 Live Births in 2008 - 2010 triennium to 153.23\100 000 Live Births in 2011. A significant Decreased was realized in North West from 229.5 to 145.6\100K in the same reporting period.
It is important to note that in 2008 - 2010 reporting period, North West was among the worst three performing Provinces above the National Norm (together with Free State and the Northern Cape), but is now reported among the Top three Performing Provinces in NCCEMD report 2011. The DHIS reflected a decrease from 203\100 000 Live Births in 2011\2012 to 160\100 000 Live Births in 2012\2013.
The Committee on Morbidity and Mortality In Children under 5 years) Report (2012) indicates that South Africa’s infant mortality rate decreased from 47.4/ 1000 Live Births in 2007 to 38.1/1000 Live Deaths. North West decreased significantly from 77.6\1000 Live Births to 48.4/1000 Live Births. According to DHIS, IMR is reported at 8 i.e. below a target of 10 \100 Live Births.
The Under Five Mortality Rate decreased from 62.1/1000 Live births in 2007 to 50.7/1000 Live Births. North West significantly decreased from 100.3\1000 Live Births to 63.1\1000 Live Births in the same period.
Our plan to ensure that pregnant women deliver within health care facilities has been improved by procurement of emergency obstetric ambulances and establishment of maternity waiting homes closer to birthing facilities. It is a great pleasure to report to the house that ten (10) Obstetric ambulances have been procured and are in the process of conversion.
Thirteen (13) Maternity Waiting Homes have been established and ten (10) are functional across the Province as reported by the Honourable Premier. We started with the first ever Milk Bank in Potchefstroom and I am happy to report that we now have one (1) at Job Shimankane Tabane, one (1) at Joe Morolong and one (1) at the Mahikeng Provincial Hospitals. With regard to the maternity waiting homes, seven (7) are already established in Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, three (3) in Bojanala, two (2) in Ngaka Modiri Molema and one (1) at Dr Kenneth Kaunda District. Maternity waiting homes guidelines were also developed and approved to ensure uniformity in implementation. We will make an effort to increase the number of Maternity Waiting Homes in 2013/14.
I wish to further commend Honourable Premier for her interest in the health of our citizens as highlighted by her adoption of a Children’s Ward at the Mahikeng Provincial Hospital and establishing a trust for it. This is a good example that we can all emulate.
We continued to improve monitoring of the implementation of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI). The progress registered is that IMCI supervision is continuously done by trained local area managers, assistant managers, community health services and Mother, Child and Women’s Health coordinators.
Plans for 2013/2014 include strengthening of monitoring by the District Specialist Teams and implementation of the new Contraception and Fertility Policy Guideline to ensure universal access to Reproductive Health services. Strategies to reduce teenage pregnancy in schools will be developed and implemented in collaboration with other departments and partners. We will continue to advocate for family planning and safe termination of pregnancy.
Honourable Speaker and the House; we are registering impressive progress with the National Health Insurance (NHI) and Primary Health Care (PHC) Re-engineering, regardless of the challenges we face. As reported last year, in respect of the North West Province the NHI is being piloted at the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District.
To date, the progress registered includes the fact that we have established the Municipal ward-based family health teams. The established and functional number of outreach teams is standing at eleven (11). Hundred and fifteen ((115) community health workers have been trained and we managed to cover eight (8) wards. We have thus far managed to profile 15 467 households across the pilot district. Chronic disease management has been linked to PHC outreach teams.
School Health Services are being revitalized. Vehicles to provide school health services have been received from National Department of Health (NDoH) and are currently being registered.
We have appointed specialist outreach teams to provide specialist outreach services. They include obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, family medicine and anesthesia.
All health facilities in Dr Kenneth Kaunda are approved for Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) initiation. Doctor support to clinics has been stepped up to twice a week in order to build confidence of nursing staff in initiating ART.
Capacity building for NHI is very important. To this effect, all members of the District Management Team (DMT) have been trained on procurement matters. All members of DMT have been trained in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) by North West University. All Sub district managers have been registered for Executive Development Programme and Oliver Tambo Fellowship. Furthermore, PHC teams have been trained on PHC Re-engineering Programme. Capacity has therefore been built progressively at facility management level for further decentralising control in view of NHI requirement. The aim is to make all clinics as cost centres before the end of 2013-14 financial year.
We will continue to improve training on nursing, EMRS and medical care to strengthen PHC and health care service delivery towards a well-functioning NHI. Two training workshops on leadership and supervision have been conducted while one information sharing session with sub-district management was conducted and supported by BroadReach. The Health System Trust (HST) continues to provide support.
Phase 1 orientation and basic foundation was conducted for 1500 CHWs and 80 nurses. We conducted two (2) studies on readiness assessment and one (1) on competency assessment of managers in PHC. The task team has resolved the issue of Professional Nurses availability and we will expedite utilizing what we have by assigning nurses in facilities based on availability.
Facilities with low caseloads will be targeted. Where there is gross shortage of nurses, retired nurses will be appointed to support outreach teams. We will also go ahead with contracting-in of General Practitioners.
The PHC Re-engineering Provincial task team has been established to provide leadership, guide process and review progress. Functional coordinating structures are in place at districts and sub-districts. The North West PHC re-engineering costed plan has since been developed to implement the three streams. Training has been standardized by National and phase one (1) which is orientation and basic foundation is provided by a contracted service provider and funded through conditional grants.
The PHC Re-engineering communication strategy is in place and we have started marketing the programme through community dialogues where 18 sub-districts participated. We will further strengthen social mobilization through community dialogues, ward and cluster meetings, the media and other marketing initiatives.
Piloting of two monitoring and evaluation system is nearing an end with participating sub-districts including Tlokwe and Greater Taung. Data from households has been integrated into the DHIS and household registration in pilot wards has been completed. However some households could not be reached due to various reasons like working occupants during office hours.
As President Jacob Zuma indicated in the State of the Nation Address, the Department of Health will accelerate and intensify progress in the pilot districts. Our efforts in strengthening implementation of the NHI pilot in 2013/2014 include improved supply chain management systems and processes to support efficient and effective health services provision within the pilot district.
We will also enhance the pilot District capacity in the areas of District Health Planning and Monitoring and Evaluation as well as strengthening referral system based on a re-engineered primary health care platform with a particular focus in rural and previously disadvantaged areas.
We will make appropriate communication equipment available at all levels of the referral system and equip Outreach Teams, PHC facilities and Hospitals to provide appropriate care at all levels. There will be a full scale roll out of Integrated Chronic Disease Management (ICDM) Community Health Worker (CHW) equipment for chronic disease screening throughout the pilot district. Twenty two (22) pharmacists’ assistants will be trained in Post Basic and 35 nurses will be trained on drug supply management.
The specialist teams will use own transport for official duties until the department approves subsidised transport or pool vehicle for them. We have realised that the district specialist teams need to have a community psychiatrist on the team to support peripheral facilities as there is manifold increase in drug and substance abuse. There is no budget for this post but the National Department of Health will be approached to support this.
We undertake to improve access and infection control in the referral chain through maintenance of Infrastructure; hand washing facilities; signage; colour coded cleaning trolleys, fast queues and electronic queue management system. We will focus on improving IT equipment, software, networks and connectivity for improved support from referral hospitals. The pilot sites will also have the Electronic Patient’s Record, Life tracking and bio-metrics system to strengthen the referral system by improved access to patient records.
We will provide all the necessary support to the Community Health Workers and Outreach teams with uniforms and identification tags. Some of the resources to be made available to them include pepper spray, whistles, name tag, branded clothing, SMS phones, etc.
Honourable Speaker and the House, we intend to embark on full expansion of Ward Based Primary Health Care Outreach Teams (WBPHCOT) at the pilot district with small scale expansion at other 3 districts as we fast-track implementation of the PHC Re-engineering Programme in 2013/2014. Recruitment of more nurses and other allied health professionals to support roll out is needed and we will explore alternative staffing models for short term solutions.
There is a need to align budget and procure school mobile units as well as vehicles for WBPHCOT. We have progressively started registering CHWs into the PERSAL system and we want to complete this process within 2013/2014 financial year.
I promised this house that there are areas of health service delivery that we deem non-negotiable and that I will take responsibility in ensuring that they are attended to. These areas of health service delivery include Infection control and cleaning; Medicines, Essential drugs and Medical supplies including dry dispensary; Medical waste; Blood supply and services: SANBS; Food services and relevant supplies; Security services; Laundry services as well as Essential equipment and maintenance of equipment
I can report that there has been concerted effort to oversee progress in these areas. We ensured that cleaning services in the province is mainly in-sourced. There are still however small pockets of out-sourcing in some facilities. Due to our ageing infrastructure this area generally remains a challenge.
To mitigate this challenge the department has introduced Core Standards that facilities must be assessed against. Of all the hospitals assessed more than three were rated the cleanest hospitals in the North West Province.
We continued to work hard to improve on Medicines, Essential Drugs and Medical Supplies. The medical depot experienced some challenges with availability of medical supplies which is due to amongst others the fact that ordered quantities are not fully supplied by the suppliers.
In some instances quantities that are supplied are not enough to satisfy hospital back-orders and this has had negative implications on availability of these items at the hospitals and the clinics. Examples of items involved are Nifedipine tablets and Perindopril tablets. Due to the high quantities that are used especially chronic medications, stock that is bought out is usually not enough because suppliers who are not on contract normally do not keep huge quantities of stock.
Communication between the depot and the hospitals has also been strengthened to continually update the institutions as to the status of the items and also to encourage the use of substitutes and alternatives where possible. Monitoring of supplier performance and reporting to appropriate authorities has also been strengthened.
The depot is currently utilizing work-around methods to determine re-order quantities and these methods are time consuming and not quite effective. Having identified this problem the department is currently in the process of sourcing a procurement module (Advanced Supply Chain or ASC for short), which has been found to be the most acceptable in the market.
In the meantime the Re-order Point Planning module is currently being worked on to make it usable so that while the department is waiting for the implementation of the ASC module, there must be something that guides the depot as to what to order and in what quantities. We welcome a commission that has been established to look into pricing of medicine and the cost of health care in the Private Health Sector.
On Medical waste, the provision of the service in the province is outsourced. This is an area that we continued to closely monitor and strengthen its management owing to public outcry in the past. I however wish to report that the waste management audit report by the Auditor General was rated satisfactorily over the last three financial years.
When coming to Laboratory and blood supply services, these are two nationally contracted entities for these immensely critical mandates. I can report the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) payments which used to be a challenge are on course and timely paid. The South African National Blood Services (SANBS) Clinical Guidelines for the use of blood and blood products have been distributed to the Hospital Blood Conservation Committees/Teams.
Honourable Speaker and the House; we also listed food services and other supplies as a non-negotiable because the nutrition provided to our patients and nursing students is of critical importance. Although the provision of food and the management of food are outsourced, the determination of specifications and the monitoring of the quality of service are done through the assistance of departmental dieticians.
The new catering (food services) contract is in its first year, and will run for a period of three years. Four companies are responsible for provision of food to all our hospitals and the two (2) nursing colleges.
The security of our staff and patients is one of the six (6) ministerial priorities. During the period under review the department has not had case of violence perpetrated against a staff member or patient by a member of the public such as the killing of a doctor/staff member (Mpumalanga example) or the rape of a staff member (Freestate/pelonomi example).
However, as it was reported in the media, the department has had a case of a patient who killed a fellow patient at the Zeerust hospital, and violence perpetrated by a staff member against a patient at the Witrand hospital.
Some of the security measures which have been implemented so far include installation of closed circuit television at Moses Kotane, Job Shimankana Tabane, Swartruggens, Witrand and Bophelong Psychiatric Hospitals. We have appointed private security companies for all our hospitals and clinics and continue to strengthen monitoring. The department is currently engaging a view in relation to whether this should continue to be an outsourced service or not and it is likely that the health sector may end up taking a collective view on the matter.
Provision of effective laundry services is an important part of quality health care provision and a non-negotiable matter. Not only does clean bedding and clothes talk to the dignity of “a people”, but it is also directly related to infection control. The provision of laundry services in the province currently follows three routes which is the provincial laundry based at the Tshepong Hospital in Matlosane, Hospital based laundries in the respective hospitals and out-sourcing of laundry services as and when it is necessary.
I established that, the department faces serious challenges in all of the above mentioned ways. In relation to the provincial laundry, it is stretched beyond its capacity: the infrastructure is old, the equipment is obsolete, and staff discipline has also been problematic (in this regard, 16 employees are currently suspended and under-going misconduct process).
In relation to hospital based laundries, most of these laundries are small and have not been recapitalized over many years. As a result, they tend to rely on the already over-stretched provincial laundry and on private laundries.
Notably, privately run laundries are used when there is pressure on the provincial laundry and on hospital based laundries. However the Bojanala district utilizes privately run laundries more than the rest of the other districts given the size of the district and the extremely limited capacity of our laundries in that district. The department has experienced occasional quality lapses on the part of these companies, which has resulted in one of the contracts been terminated.
To address the challenges discussed above, the department has adopted a regional laundry model. This means that in the medium term, the Tshepong Laundry will be converted into a regional laundry, and regional laundries will be set up in all other districts. This particular model will require the department to mobilize funding and reprioritize internally where possible. The financial implications for this process have not yet been finalized.
Although the department has registered progress in the area of Essential Equipment and Maintenance of Equipment, the provision and maintenance of medical equipment remains a challenge. In this regard, the department is working hard to compile demand plans and ensure that they are implemented. As a management responsibility going forward, I have directed that the Province should have a Strategy on Medical Equipment. These are tasks we plan to complete within the 2013/2014 financial year.
Honourable Speaker; yes there are challenges but by naming these important matters non-negotiables, we are beginning to see exceptional progress. I therefore directed that each and every service point in our department will have non-negotiables which they will monitor and make sure such non-negotiable items are addressed and reported on.
I also promised this House that the department will take advantage of a national tender on aeromedical services to procure an EMRS helicopter for our province. I am happy to announce that we succeeded in this venture.
Apart from responding to emergencies this EMRS-copter will also be able to send a specialist to some of our patients in remote areas in urgent need of the specialized services. Our communities are urged to continue to use the normal EMRS toll free number 10177 to request the service and our call center will determine if the emergency requires the helicopter.
Honourable Speaker and the House; yes, ours is a cocktail of four colliding epidemics which were revealed by the Lancet report to be Maternal, Newborn and Child Health; HIV/AIDS and TB; Non-Communicable Disease and lastly Violence and Injury. However, I wish to say we need to understand our challenges in the context of the structural problems of health in the whole world which were captured by the Director-General of the World Health Organization Dr Margaret Chan at the 65th World Health Assembly in May last year as being:
“Rising health care costs yet poor access to essential medicines, especially affordable generic products; an emphasis on cure that leaves prevention by the wayside; costly private care for the privileged few, but second-rate care for everybody else; grossly inadequate numbers of staff, or the wrong mix of staff; weak or inappropriate information systems; weak regulatory control and schemes for financing care that punish the poor.”
Dr Chan further indicated that universal health coverage was the most appropriate means to address these problems and that, “universal coverage is the single most powerful concept that public health has to offer”.
Over the years, countries which succeeded in implementing the national health system have drastically improved their health outcomes and those who delayed are struggling. We can trace the evolution of a world move towards universal health coverage to as far back as the 1928 Commission on Old Age Pension and National Insurance.
However, I wish to emphasis the 1978 Alma Ata Declaration which was adopted by WHO. It came with a solution called Health Care for all by 2000. A set of international health care delivery mechanism in the form of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have since been developed and 2015 set as a target for reporting on achievements.
You will know that MDGs 4, 5 and 6 are all health related and they have become a mechanism by which the world measures our health outcomes. As a country we went further and developed the Negotiated Service Delivery Agreements which we use to measure our own performance towards achieving the MDGs.
One of the key MDGs is the life expectancy of our nation. Our indicators in this regard illustrate that we are in the right direction and should have a reason to believe in our vision. Our life expectancy increased to 57.2 from 55.5 for males and from 60.8 to 62.8 for females.
Honourable Speaker and the House; it is clear we need the NHI to achieve the universal coverage vision and such a vision need to be shared by all sectors of our country and province. As a country and province we are now working towards Vision 2030 as captured by the National Development Plan.
It’s a vision that we can only attain if it receive mass popular support. We need health activists who are developmental in orientation. We already have a few among our citizens and within various sectors. One such an activist is Dr Mphothulo, a General Practitioner based in Taung who despite being a private practitioner has come out to openly support the NHI vision.
We call for a social compact and I wish to say more and more of our sectors are coming on board. Our mines are contributing. The Royal Bafokeng Nation continues to partner with us in health service delivery. We also seen acknowledge concrete involvement of the Lonmin Mines in the past year such that we now have a standing year (5) year agreement and the mine has thus far spend R3.5m in building three (3) family units at Bapong.
They also bought two (2) mobile clinics in 2010, a maternity and obstetric ambulance and extended the Marikana Clinic. This year, they will complete the remaining work at the Provincial Control Center and build a maternity waiting home for us. Impala mines have built a Neonatal ICU unit at Job Shimankane Tabane to the tune of R8m while Xtrata Mines spent R11m in building Bethani Clinic. We are grateful of these partnerships and many others that we continue to see from various sectors.
Yes, we have some health professionals who disappoint us with their bad attitudes, who because of their conduct, a Ghanaian Writer, Ayi Kwei Armah wrote a 1968 Novel, “The Beautiful Ones are Not Yet Born”. I now wish to say “the beautiful ones are born already” because I am inspired by a committed workforce within the Department of Health who I truly believe shares our vision. They now know that it must always a pleasure to serve our people!
In the words of President Nelson Mandela, “it always seems impossible until it is done”. We are inspired by the NDP vision for which Robert Sobukwe has said “let me plead with you, lovers of my Africa, to carry with you into the world the vision of a new Africa”.
The department’s 2013 – 2014 Budget Policy Speech is inspired by the National Development Plan – Vision 2030 which affirms the principle of universal coverage.
Honourable Speaker and the House; as I move closer to conclusion I wish to affirm the department’s commitment to increase the life expectancy of our people as directed by President Jacob Zuma. We remain hopeful and believe, with the support of all stakeholders and the people of North West, we are sure to make a good impression. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “we must never lose infinite hope.”
I thank the Honourable Premier for her support and inspiration, my colleagues in the Executive Council and the Social Cluster for their guidance as well as the Honourable Chairperson and members of the Legislature, Chairperson of the Health Standing Committee and its members for their vigilance in holding us accountable to improve health services for our people.
We are blessed to have members of the Provincial Health Council and those of our governance structures who are passionate to serve our people. I highly value our partnerships with academic institutions and the Mines. I am forever grateful to the work of our NGOs sector and our private partners. Thank you for your support.
To the Acting HoD, Mr Andrew Kyereh, the management and the officials of the department of Health, I thank you for the hard work you do under difficult circumstances.
Last but not least I’d like to thank my family, my wife and my kids for their support and my ill mother who has undergone an operation and we praying for her speedy recovery. You have all been an inspiration.
“Working together we can build better and healthy communities”
Ke a leboga!
I thank you!
