Honourable Speaker of the Provincial Legislature,
Honourable Premier, Mr Supra Mahumapelo,
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 of the Bokone Bophirima Provincial Government, Professor Tebogo Job Mokgoro and Other Heads of Administration in Government,
Head of the Department, Dr Thabo Lekalakala,
Leaders of Labour Federations, Academics, Civil Society, Faith Based-Organisations and Business,
Distinguished guests,
Comrades and friends,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is our honour and privilege to take the opportunity of this rare occasion to present our budget vote to this august house. We are indeed humbled to be part of the collective leadership of our people to accomplish the noble objectives of building a non racial, non sexist, democratic and prosperous society.
We stand here today before you, to pride ourselves of the tremendous achievements of the ANC government in our province, under the tutelage of our Premier, Honourable Supra Mahumapelo. We are indeed confident that under his outstanding leadership we will carry forward the tasks of the second phase of our transition for the radical transformation of our society.
Honourable Speaker and the House; we are presenting our budget vote amidst the unfolding events of far reaching political and socio economic significance in our province, our country, the continent and the whole world. Indeed we find ourselves having to take forward the tasks of building our national democratic society in a more complex and ever changing world environment. Over the past few weeks our country has witnessed an unprecedented phenomenon of xenophobic conflicts tearing our people apart. In some instances foreign nationals and South Africans were subjected to horrendous acts of killings and brutal forms of human sufferings. As a country and the people, we must stand against those who seek to undermine the achievements of our hard won freedom and democracy. These are acts of human atrocities that we must never allow.
As the Department of Health we know that violence is the fourth contributory factor in the quadruple burden of disease we are battling with. We know that the victims of these horrendous acts will end in our hospitals and further compromise our already stretched health care system and limited resources.
Honourable Speaker and the House; this year, the movement of our people, our national liberation movement, the ANC, is celebrating its 60-year anniversary of the Freedom Charter. Encompassed within this historic document is the clause "There shall be peace and friendship". This is our historic policy preposition that defines our relationship with the rest of humanity in our continent and the whole world.
During the last year, the people of the African continent and the world marked the fifty years anniversary celebrations of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which is now the African Union (AU). The AU is the most important political instrument, which over the years of our struggle occupied the forefront trenches of our struggles, to liberate the people of our continent. It has played a much significant political leadership role in the struggle of our people against imperialism and colonial domination. Even today it continues to play a central role of building a better Africa from the shambles of colonial oppression and exploitation.
Guided by common vision, common values, common interests and a strong commitment towards restoring their dignity, the people of Africa declared to nations of the world that they will fight side by side until they defeat the demon of colonialism in all its ramified forms.
Honourable Speaker and the House; underpinning the fifty years anniversary celebrations of the birth of the African Union, is the commitment by the people of our continent to unite Africa as home of humanity. We therefore make a clarion call to all South Africans of goodwill, our political and religious leaders and all formations of civil society, to work together in combating scourge of xenophobia which seeks to undermine the achievements of our democratic breakthrough.
We cannot agree more with the words of wisdom from our Premier when he says that the relationships we have established with our sister African countries and others elsewhere in the world has seen many foreign investors developing keen interest in our province and the country as a whole.
These are the words of courage that will provide our provincial economy and our country with opportunities to leverage on the economic potential of our continent and the world. We need to work together with the people of our continent to reverse the centuries old legacy of poverty, disease, backwardness and under-development.
Honourable Speaker and the House; Health is one of the most important instruments of nation building and formation. Throughout the history of the development of human society, it has proven itself to be an indispensable tool of social cohesion. Through our programmes we succeeded to bring to the fore the importance of the fundamental principles of UBUNTU to our people. We have inculcated the spirit of solidarity amongst our people to work together in confronting challenges they come across in their lives.
The principle of the Freedom Charter "The people shall govern" finds its resonance in our resolve to expand our health care system through the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI). This is equally a demonstration that health is a societal issue engraved in the democratic values of the constitution of our country. The ANC government has an unwavering commitment to provide quality health care services to the majority of the people of our country. We are therefore inspired by the Freedom Charter when it says “all bodies of minority rule, advisory boards, councils and authorities shall be replaced by democratic organs of self-government”.
Honourable Speaker and the House; it is only social solidarity that we can attain the objectives of the freedom charter. Through structures such as the clinic committees, hospital boards, the Provincial Consultative Health Forum and the Provincial Health Council, we are realising the objectives of the Freedom Charter that "the people shall govern".
We appreciate the growing interest and participation of organs of civil society such as traditional leaders, business, women and youth formations, cooperatives and different faith organizations in matters cornering health issues. We have trained pastors across the breath and length of our province as ambassadors of our PHC to disseminate health promotion information.
Honourable Speaker and the House; in order to implement our health programmes we need to first outline our resource capacity either human, technology, capital and finance. Allow me therefore to start by presenting the Bokone Bophirima Department of Health
Final Budget allocation for 2015/16 and Indicative Figures for the MTEF Period which is shared by eight (8) key programmes as follows:
|
|
(R’000) |
(R’000) |
(R’000) |
|
Programmes |
2015/16 |
2016/17 |
2017/18 |
|
Administration |
286,120 |
303,630 |
325,983 |
|
District Health Services |
4,670,399 |
4,952,417 |
5,353,495 |
|
Emergency Medical Services |
293,372 |
314,513 |
330,239 |
|
Provincial Hospital Services |
1,284,576 |
1,488,651 |
1,647,350 |
|
Central Hospitals |
1,109,787 |
1,186,119 |
1,219,554 |
|
Health Sciences and training |
313,548 |
343,032 |
360,083 |
|
Health Care Support Services |
149,195 |
145,492 |
159,418 |
|
Health Facilities Management |
797,074 |
561,337 |
567,146 |
|
Total |
8,904,071 |
9,295,192 |
9,963,267 |
Honourable Speaker and the House; you will notice that the District Health Services takes almost 50% of our budget. This augurs well with our Villages, Townships and Small “Dorpies” (VTSD) priority programme because District Health Services is in the coal face of service delivery.
This Department will use every cent available to improve the health of our people. The current reality about our budget needs however is that the prices of goods used in the world’s health sector have sky-rocketed. South Africa has not been spared in this economic meltdown. Consequently the health sector is the worst hit due to inflationary pressures of commodities, technology, and quality skills. The health sector specific inflationary pressures are further compounded by the marked increases in salaries of health professionals and unfortunately have not been matched by corresponding increases in the MTEF budget allocations to the department.
But reality also dictates that there is a limit to which every Rand can be stretched. Amilcar Cabral articulates, “hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories.”
The reality of the budget of the North West Department of Health is that, due to the factors mentioned above, the department has built up accruals over the years since the 2000/01 financial and have today grown up to the tune of R600 million to be carried over to the new financial year whilst the increase in the equitable share of the budget between last year and the current financial year is less than the rate of inflation in the health sector.
President Jacob Zuma in the State of the Nation Address provided a clear perspective on situation before us. He stated that, “the International Monetary Fund revised down to 3,5%, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecasts for global economic growth in 2015”. This was as a result of the dwindling world economy.
This department has delivered despite the budgetary constraints and the dwindling world economy. From an infrastructure perspective the projects we are busy with include:
- Bophelong Psychiatric Hospital,
- Upgrading of Job Shimankana Tabane Hospital
- Witrand Psychiatric Hospital
There are a number of community health centers (CHCs) that we also targeted for 2014/15 and they include:
- Mathibistad,
- Sekhing,
- Boitekong and
- Tlhabane.
I am happy to announce that Tlhabane CHC and Mathibestad are complete. Boitekong Community Health Center and Sekhing CHC have been extended but we have since intervened to ensure these projects are also completed without further delays.
The following clinics are all completed, occupied and in use:
- Lekgopung,
- Madibe-a-Makgabane,
- Mosweu and
- Twelingspan clinics
Mmakaunyane and Madikwe clinics project designs were completed during the 2014/15 financial year while Buxton clinic is completed but partially occupied at the moment. Full occupation will take place after ESKOM has upgraded electricity in this clinic.
In 2015/16 financial year we intent to construct:
- Brits Hospital Staff accommodation,
- Jouberton Ext 21,
- Maquassi Hills CHC
- Upgrading and extension of Mmabatho and Excelsius Nursing Colleges.
- Construction of New 150 beds Lichtenburg Hospital
- New clinics for Weltevrede, Mmakaunyane and Madikwe.
I am pleased that 62% of the infrastructure budget will be spent on projects falling under the Villages, Townships and Small “Dorpies” (VTSD) category prioritized by the Honourable Premier.
Ours is to ensure that we build quality descent facilities for descent people. For this reason, over 120 clinics across the province have been targeted for refurbishment. Maintenance is ongoing in all our facilities and specific attention will be put to Joe Morolong Hospital and the Medical Depot.
The department has moved swiftly to revise the policy governing the operating hours of all clinics particularly in rural areas as the Honourable Premier has directed in the State of the Province Address. Over 50 clinics across 19 sub-districts are already operating 24 hours. A further twenty (20) clinics have extended their hours of operation mainly in rural areas. This is over and above the number of clinics that extended their hours of operations last year. We will continue to extend hours of services where there is need in other areas of the Province. We have also introduced Dental Services at Geysdorp, Deelpan and introduce mobile visit at Broedersput. Once again, these are small dorpies.
Honourable Speaker and the House; our approach to HIV/AIDS and TB which is centered on muti-sectoral collaboration continued to yield positive results in a true sense of the “saamtrek-saamwerk” philosophy. The Provincial HIV prevalence decreased from 30.2% in 2011 to 29.2% in 2012. HIV transmission rate is reduced from 2.3% in 2013/14 to 1.9% in 2014/15 while TB Cure rate improved from 66.6% in 2013/14 to 69% by March 2014/15.
We promised this house and the people of Bokone Bophirima Province that the Department will initiate a plan to roll out mobile clinics initiating patients on Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) across the Province in 2014\15. I am pleased to report that we have seventy eight (78) total number of mobile clinics and thirty three (33) of these are already initiating patients on ART.
As highlighted by the President in the State of the Nation Address, our Province hosted the launch of a massive programme to turn the tide against tuberculosis (TB), with a special focus on three communities, offenders at Correctional Services facilities, mineworkers and communities in mining towns. We also extended the campaign to the Early Learning Centres. During the build-up activities towards World TB Day and on the day itself in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District, a total of 21957 TB screening were conducted. Out of this number, 1587 were suspected to have TB, confirmed TB cases were 7 and immediately started on treatment. Three Thousand Four Hundred and Fifty Seven (3457) were offered HIV Counseling and Testing (HCT) while 506 tested positive for HIV.
Each of our districts now has the MDR unit. We are the first to be known as curers of Extreme Drug Resistant TB and we are intending to raise the bar because we are now in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology of the North West University to explore methods to be able to test and confirm TB result within 45 minutes.
The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) continues to decline in the Province. The ratio declined from 229.5 in 2008-2010 to 168.75 deaths per 100k live births in 2011-2013. In-facility mortality for children under five years of age has reduced from 7% in 2012/13 to 6.6% in 2013/14. In our effort to further bring down maternal and infant mortality, we announced that the Province will start with implementation of the ground breaking MomConnect initiative in 2014/15. Indeed the province has started with implementation of MoMConnect since August 2014. In this initiative, pregnant women are registered at health facilities to received stage based messages by Professional Nurses. A total of 6313 health workers were trained on MoMConnect while the total pregnant women registered were 21 706 against a target of 20 680 from September 2014 to March 2015 (105% success rate). MoMConnect has also proven to be able to reduce waiting times in clinics because mothers can be updated on the stages of their pregnancy in the comfort of their homes. We only had sixteen (16) complains and they were all addressed.
Re lebogela ditshwaelo tsa bo Mme Agnes Thwesha wa ko Boitekong (Rusternburg), Lebogang Mokawane ko Tswaing le Mosidi Molefe ko Itsoseng bao ba reng ba itumelela MoMConnect le tiriso ya yone ka gore e ba thusa go ipakanyetsa pelegi. Bukana ya rona ya ditshwaelo e bontsha fa bo Mme ba le masome a robedi le boratoro (86) mo go ba le lekgolo (100) ba itumelela MoMConnect le ditirelo tseo ba di amogetseng.
We will strengthen the immunisation programme as one of the efforts to reduce infant and child mortality due to childhood immunisation preventable diseases. In the past financial year the department immunized 81.8% of children under the age of one (1) year against all the ten (10) childhood vaccine preventable diseases. 86% of these children were immunized against measles, and only two (2) cases of measles were reported during the period under review. 84.2% were immunised against pneumococcal infections, intended to prevent related pneumonia, and 88.4% were immunized against Rotavirus for the prevention of related diarrhea. Efforts to prevent malaria through vector control activities will continue so as to maintain the malaria free status in our province, and case management will be improved to control mortality among imported cases.
The ANC government has introduced sub dermal implant as a measure to curb teenage pregnancy. As a province, we started immediately by rolling out the programme to all our districts. I can report to the house that a total of 660 implants have been inserted to date. We have also up-scaled our campaigns on promotion of contraception as a prevention method. It is however disheartening that we continue to deal with cases of illegal abortions which puts the lives of young girls at risk. We will continue to fight these devious acts which are perpetrated by dodgy and unscrupulous “doctors” who are only interested at making profit at the expense of our people.
Bagaetsho, baagi ba Bokone Bophirima a re itlhokomeleng. Bo Mma le bo Rra, a re emeng ka dinao, re sireletseng matshelo a bana ba rona. Ka na “kgakakgolo ga e na mebala, mebala e dikgakaneng”.
Mmusa-kgotla, Lefapha la Pholo le tshotse tshwetso ya go tsaya karolo ee bonalang mo go lwantsheng lehuma segolo jang mo baneng ka ntlha ya gore phepelotlase e na le seabe mo kgolong ya malwetsi.
We have therefore provided yet another “saamtrek-saamwerk” initiative as we intervened and work with our sister Departments of Education and Social Development to break the circle of poverty by providing meal guidelines for Early Learning Centers, and continues to train educators on those menus, growth monitoring and nutrition supplementation for children under five years. To this end, we have trained 423 ECD Educators and 232 ECDs were visited for support visit during 2014/15.
As part of breaking the circle of poverty, the department working together with the Department of Agriculture will in 2015/16 expand on the food gardens programme primarily targeting rural areas. Thus far, all our districts have indentified sites. The National Department of Health has already appointed a service provider for this purpose.
Bagaetsho, letsema le thata ka mong! Ka jalo re tla tlhoka gore baagi ba rona ba nne le seabe se segolo go netefatsa katlego ya ditshingwana tse tsa merogo tseo re tla di simololang. Se se tla re thusa go lwantsha lehuma, le go netefatsa gore balwetsi ba fepiwa maungo le merogo eo e tla ba thusang ka dikotla.
We embrace the Setsokotsane Programme. Thus far we realise it provides ample opportunity for the department to assess households health challenges at the point of contact with service users. Through this programme we are able to identify households that require interventions. We will continue to be at the doorsteps of health service delivery through the Setsokotsane programme and contribute to the development of our small “dorpies” and villages.
We promised to staff six (6) "Kgomotso" Clinics with trained Forensic Nurses to serve and assist victims of violence in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District. I can report that “Kgomotsi Centres” are functional and we have ten (10) forensic trained nurses in Ratlou, Lehurutshe/Zeerust Complex, Gelukspan, Delareyville and Itsoseng. Clients from Thusong District Hospital are managed at Itsoseng CHC and we have established two (2) more Thuthuzela Care Centres at Brits and Joe Morolong Hospitals and they are all functional.
In a move to build a healthy nation and increase the life expectancy of our nation by reducing chronic illness, we promised to organize periodic and regular physical activities for both employees and recipients of health services at provincial, district and facility levels. I am happy to report that the Department has implemented the Healthy lifestyle Campaign in terms of education and awareness for both employees and the general public. Thirteen (13) physical activity groups were established at community level, covering the four districts, and these groups engaged in physical activity sessions on a monthly basis. A total of fifty six (56) physical activity sessions took place at different community settings, and five (5) sessions were conducted for employees in the department at all levels.
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motswaledi has on Tuesday when delivering the Budget Speech of the National Department of Health emphasized the importance of prevention of diseases which is a foundation of our programme on health system strengthening. We are moving away from a curative health care system to a preventative one. This approach will also go a long way in reducing long queues in our hospitals and clinics.
A healthy lifestyle campaign will be strengthened with the main focus on education and awareness for both the general public and employees in the department. The focus will be on physical activity, healthy diet, as well as harmful effects of tobacco and excessive alcohol usage. Screening for lifestyle diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and mental health will be heightened for early detection and treatment of these conditions. We are looking at the possibility of establishing work based work-out centers and various medical aid programmes will be approached to donate training equipments.
We have successfully increased payment of stipend for all Community Health Workers (CHWs) linked to our health facilities from R1500 to R2000 effective from 1st July 2014 as planned. The Department also promised last year that all CHWs will be given equipment for screening of households for chronic diseases throughout the NHI pilot District. I can report that equipment for screening has been procured. However due to budget constraints not all equipment could be procured. The balance will be procured in the 2015/16 financial year. We will also in 2015/16 continue to empower our CHWs by ensuring that all CHWs of ward based outreach teams in the pilot district receive bicycles or adult tricycles for commuting to the wards. The focus areas this year will be standardized data collection, monitoring and evaluation, e- Health and strengthening supply chain management.
Partnerships
We sought partnerships to expand TB and Drug Resistant TB services to the mines and Correctional services in 2014/15. I am happy to report that our partnerships have yielded remarkable outputs. Through partnership with the AURUM Institute funded by Global fund, all Correctional Centres in the province are receiving TB services. The MDR TB committee was established in Bojanala with representation from the Mining Houses and Correctional Centres. Satellite sites were established for Community based MDR care at Bapong, Tlhabane and Mabeskraal CHCs, they serve both the public and mines. A six (6) bed MDR unit was established in Job Shimankane Tabane Hospital. A fifteen (15) bed MDR unit is underway in Moses Kotane Hospital. Lastly, the full upgrade including additional structures of the Phokeng mortuary will be realized with a R9m sponsorship given to the department, by Royal Bafokeng Platinum Mines as part of their social responsibility. This in essence doubles the mortuaries capacity and also makes the environment much safer to work in. It will allow the Department to better serve the communities in that area especially the mines.
Honourable Speaker and the House, we have continued to establish partnerships (saamtrek-saamwerk) as a cornerstone plan and approach to health care service delivery even in some of our clinical areas. One of the partnerships that the Honourable Premier announced to be in the pipeline is that of the Belgian Technical Corporation (BTC) fund. This study has commenced. Data collection should be completed by end May 2015 and the first draft report completed by July 2015. It is being conducted by North West University (NWU) and this collaboration will strengthen the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) capacity within the Bokone Bophirima province.
In collaboration with the University of Cape Town (UCT) Health Economics Unit a formal Masters study has been completed to determine more equitable needs based allocation model of equitable share funds to districts as we continue towards developing needs based District Health Services Funding model.
Ideal Clinic
We promised this house last year that the department will contribute to the Rebranding, Repositioning and Renewal Programme “RRR” as a directive by the Honorable Premier in his maiden State of the Province Address. We said we will start the process of branding of an “ideal clinic” for each district. This far we have developed the operations and training manual and are awaiting the appointment of service providers to refurbish the pilot facility to meet the branded requirements.
President Jacob Zuma has stated in the State of the Nation Address that, “the Ideal Clinic Initiative is aimed at promoting efficiency, effectiveness and professionalism in clinics”. Forty (40) clinics have been identified for preparation for readiness as ideal clinics in the 2015/16 financial year, and the model will be subsequently rolled out to all other clinics in the province.
The rollout of the implementation of Primary Health Care Re-engineering in the province is on track with 298 Ward Based Primary Health Care Outreach Teams (WBPHCOT) cumulatively established by 2014/15 financial year. Additional 62 teams will be established in the current financial year. District Clinical Specialist Teams (DCSTs) are functional in all the four districts and the establishment of School Health Teams continues.
We continued to closely monitor areas of health service delivery that we deem non-negotiable. The Department introduced drills as a method of monitoring performance in these key areas in 2014/15. It is because of this drills initiative that we were able to pick up that a generator in Taung Hospital was not working and we were able to find a solution well in time before a disaster struck. In 2015/16, we will upscale these types of drills across all areas of essential services. I expect all facility managers to develop a roaster for these targeted drills and provide monthly reports.
The department has a plan to reduce patient waiting times. The plan entails amongst others decreasing patients from hospitals by sending them directly to chronic medicine to private dispensing facilities nearer to people’s homes. In 2015/16, access of health services will be further broadened via planned patient transport to bring patients where access can be easier. A pilot project will be run in Bojanala and Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati Districts to involve the local taxi association to provide access to health care services for communities. The new planned patient transport vehicles will be given to each sub-district to ensure the smooth flow of patients between health facilities. Further to reduce waiting time, we will be piloting electronic record management in Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Bojanala to easily access patient files.
The Manifesto of the African National Congress has rightfully identified some of the issues that we have identified as non-negotiable as important to advance the people’s health. As a province we are on track with the implementation of the Manifesto of the ruling party . We have started with in-sourcing of laundry in the Mahikeng Provincial Hospital. Ditsobotla Sub-district has started the process of piloting in-sourcing of security.
The department had planned to purchase 30 more ambulances during the 2014/15 financial year. We also planned for new EMRS satellite stations and a new patient transport model. There were only 20 ambulances purchased at price of R9 Million.
Honourable Speaker and the House; yes we have challenges but we are responding by transforming our health care system because we realize the world health system is reforming to adapt to the changing landscapes. In the USA, the resultant reform has come with the introduction of what is now called “The Obama Care”. In Mexico, the Federal Government devised and implemented a reform and then demonstrated, with evidence, how a large, middle-income country can transform its health system and successfully achieve universal health coverage in one decade. I believe our country is in the same and right direction with the National Health insurance (NHI). We are implementing health reforms which, in line with the National Development Plan will lead us towards universal access to health care by all, Vision 2030.
I have to agree with Albert Eistein that, “we cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”.
Despite the growing concerns about our challenges we have a plan and are already implementing solutions. The department has taken up our challenges by continuously looking at ways of improving efficiency. We conducted an assessment which revealed that 82% of overtime payment in the public sector comes from the Department of Health. We are not happy with the way overtime has been managed and one thing that we will immediately do to address this challenge is bring extra overtime to the end. We will announce further measure to deal with our increasing wage bill.
Cost cutting measures have been extended to include restrictions on meetings, subsistence and travelling, telephone and other operating costs. The Health Facilities Revitalization Programme is also being refocused on building staff accommodation at health facilities to reduce the high rental costs incurred by hospitals.
We are also excited about the initiative of the data driven approach that we introduced through the Analytics Command Centre. This command center enables the Department to predict certain problems before they occur and therefore intervene to prevent their occurrence. It strives to build networks of citizens, service providers, government and other stakeholders to empower them as co-responsible participants in achieving better health outcomes and addressing the needs of communities. The center will benefit us by supporting the effective distribution of resources to where they are most needed, by vastly improving the efficiency of data integration and interpretation through automating assessments and analyses that would otherwise take weeks or months to generate manually and by dramatically reducing the need for meetings, as well as their associated time and cost.
We also want finalize the Provincial Health Bill. The Bill will help prepare our facilities better for National Health Insurance (NHI) and protect the decentralization model which has seen us devolve powers to our districts to capacitate them and help speed up health care service delivery where it is needed the most.
Beyond these plans, we have an overarching turnaround strategy to deal with our financial situation and it’s a plan that requires a “saamtrek-saamwerk” approach. That is why I welcome the Provincial Treasury to work with the Department in reversing the accruals and stabilizing the finances of the Department.
A shared services centre concept is also being introduced on sub-district level to reduce support staff. The current proposal has in terms of posts 59.1% health professionals and 40.9% support services (with 72.5% and 27.5% split in terms of cost respectively). It is important to note that support services include technical operations such as maintenance, clinical engineers and other non-health professionals. Of support services in terms of posts 42.7% is administration (corporate service) and 57.2% technical operations and 58.1% and 41.8% in terms of cost.
We are in the process of a restructuring exercise which is aimed at trimming down on the administration component and moving resources to funding more hands at the coal face of service delivery at health facilities and institutional levels. The department employed 125 admin staff members against 580 Health Professionals and 177 lower level employees rendering services at the coal face for the 2014/15 financial year. The end product of the restructuring exercise will see administration / Corporate Services staff only occupying 16% of the proposed compensation budget, technical operations 11.5% and health professionals 72.5%. Almost 3/4 of the compensation budget is proposed to be spent on health professionals, and the department made good strides in reducing non-core posts and increasing health professional posts.
For 2014/15, we had a target to recruit one hundred and thirty one (131) Interns, one hundred and fifty five (155) Data Capturers recruited, one hundred and thirteen (113) Auxiliary Nurses and thirty (30) Enrolled Nurses. These targets were exceeded due to additional funding from National Department of Health.
I wish to thank Excelsius Nursing College SRC for their understanding when we asked them to end the strike. We pleaded with them to understand the financial situation of the Department and the crisis facing the world today. Not that we are happy with the little money they are getting from the Department but to understand that our struggle requires sacrifices and for us to be patriotic. If we need more nurses then we should share the little resources. In this financial year we will be making major reforms to the two colleges so that there will be stability for efficient learning and teaching.
Our province has for the first time in the history of this country sent over 300 learners to study medicine in Cuba within 2 years, a sure sign that we are serious about increasing the number of doctors in our facilities. For 2015/16, we intend to send even more learners to Cuba to study medicine, twenty (20) will be sent to local universities while sixty (60) will be targeted for allied health care workers like pharmacist, dental therapy and surgery, dietetics, optometry, optical dispensing, physiotheraphy and speech theraphy.
Bagaetsho, a re nneng le tsholofelo ya go itse gore kgwetlo ngwe le ngwe e na le tharabololo. A re tsweleleng go dira mmogo go tokafatsa bophelo jwa setshaba sa rona. Ke lebogela kemo-nokeng eo ke e bonang ka metlha go tswa go lona jaaka Kgotlatheomolao ya Porofense le dikomiti tse di farologaneng. Ke leboge le Tonakgolo Rre Supra Mahumapelo ka boeteledipele jo bo manontlhotlho.
Ke leboga Tlhogo ya Lefapha Dr Thabo Lekalakala jaaka a semeletse go re thusa go lebisa Lefapha mo tsamaisong ee kgatlhisang. Ka nako tsotlhe ke bona kemonokeng ya Batsamaisi le badiri ba Lefapha! Bagaetsho ke a lo leboga! Ke leboge le Khumagadi ya me Mme Mosamo Masike le bana Tebogo, Tshegofatso le Keitumetse ka tshegetso eo ba e nnayang ka dinako tsotlhe. A maikaelelo a rona a tswelele go tsepama mo go direleng setshaba ka boinelo mme re neelane ka ditirelo tsa pholo tsa maemo a ntlha.
William Alger writes, “After every storm the sun will smile; for every problem there is a solution, and the soul’s indefeasible duty is to be of good cheer”.
We hold on to these words because we know that we will be laying the ground work for introducing an electronic medical record (EMR) that will contain accurate patient Demographics, contain all images, laboratory data, clinical notes of every provincial citizen, reduce high litigation that all our health departments face because of accurate records, serve as a basis for the upcoming NHI, improve departmental and provincial planning and improve vaccinations, feeding schemes amongst others.
We are sure to realise our vision! , we are “Moving Bokone Bophirima Forward!”
“Mmogo re isa Bokone Bophirima kwa Pele!”
Bagaetsho, ke a leboga!
I thank you!
