2008 State of the Province Address
18 February 2009
As the current term of office draws to a close, I take this opportunity to
share with all of you the progress we have made in discharging our mandate.
In 2004 we undertook to continue improving the health status of the people
of Gauteng. We identified five key strategic priorities, and I am proud to
report that we have delivered on the commitments we made.
In order to ensure that children do not die from preventable illnesses, we
improved immunisation coverage from 78 percent in 2004 to 97 percent by the end
of December 2008.
In December 2008 we launched the Pneumoccocal Conjugate and Rotavirus
vaccines which reduce mortality rates of infants, particularly in those whose
immune systems are compromised. These vaccines will be available at all health
facilities as from 1 April 2009.
We are currently providing nutritional supplements to 392 207 adults, and 41
789 children with compromised nutritional status. This figure will be increased
to 400 000 for adults and 50 000 children in the next financial year.
Since July 2004, we have trained 4 500 community health workers who reach
out to communities in support of health promotion and as continuation of the
care that is provided at our health institutions. We will train an additional 2
000 as from April this year.
In order to reduce long queues at our clinics, we launched the Chronic
Medication Distribution project in three districts in 2008: Metsweding, West
Rand and Sedibeng last year. This project is aimed at providing relief for
patients who suffer from chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes,
who no longer have to endure long queues to collect their regular medication
from clinics.
Community health workers distribute chronic medication at patient's homes
and also monitor their condition. We will be expanding this project to selected
localities in Tshwane, Johannesburg, and Ekurhuleni this year.
For the past five years we have been providing free dentures to 2 100
pensioners every year. As from this year we will increase the number of
beneficiaries to 2 600 per annum.
A unit for rehabilitation services at Tshwane District Hospital for people
with visual impairment will be opened in March 2009 and a total of 500 people
with visual impairment will benefit from the service.
Since 2004, we have restored sight to 47 015 people through cataract
operations, and in 2008 alone, we restored sight to 11 556 people. High Volume
cataract operation centres have been established at Pretoria West Hospital and
Lenasia community health centre.
More than 165 000 people are on anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment since 2004,
of whom 14 500 are children. This number will be increased this year to 200
000. Anti-retroviral treatment is now available at 65 health facilities since
its implementation in April 2004.
Three additional treatment sites will be opened at Bekkersdal, Devon and
Central Johannesburg by the end of April this year. Prevention of mother-to-
child transmission of HIV is available at all hospitals and those clinics that
render antenatal care services.
We have improved the tuberculosis (TB) cure rate from 64 percent in 2004, to
75 percent. Even though we still fall short of the national target, this is a
significant improvement. In order to improve the TB cure rate, we will increase
the number of HIV positive patients who will be screened for TB.
In order to ensure expanded access to Health services nearer to where people
live, all community health centres now have a full time doctor. Family
physicians who have completed their specialist training will be placed at
district hospitals to support clinical care provided at clinics.
Since 2004, 50 clinics have extended their hours of service, 46 of these now
render services on Saturdays, and seven of these also operate for 24 hours per
day. 13 More clinics will extend their hours of service by July 2009.
In 2004 we promised to build 10 new clinics and community health centres. We
have made good on that commitment and the last four of these institutions will
be opened in the next few weeks, namely Eersterus community health centre,
Mandela-Sisulu Clinic in Phomolong, Soweto, Dark City Clinic in Ekangala, and
Johan Deo Clinic near Sebokeng.
97 percent of the people of Gauteng now have access to a health facility
within a five kilometre radius.
In order to ensure that our people do not by-pass clinics and present
themselves at hospitals with conditions that can be treated at a primary health
care level, we will continue to strengthen district health services, and instil
confidence in the services rendered at clinics community health centres based
in our communities.
We made an undertaking to shorten waiting times at our hospital pharmacies
and we have delivered on this undertaking. We renovated 10 hospital pharmacies,
and built 12 new ones since 2004.
Work is continuing on the building of Jabulani Hospital and the new
Natalspruit Hospital. In 2007 we opened the state of the art Steve Biko
Academic Hospital and in the course of this year we will open the new Mamelodi
Hospital.
We are on course to open a new accident and emergency unit at Chris Hani
Baragwanath Hospital, which will change the face of the hospital and improve
services.
A new accident and emergency unit has been completed at Sebokeng
Hospital.
In November 2008 we launched the electronic health record at four clinics
which refer patients to Sebokeng Hospital. This will be expanded to all
provincial clinics in Sedibeng by the end of June 2009. We will commence
similar services in the Johannesburg and Tshwane Health Districts during the
course of this year.
With all these initiatives, we clearly have delivered on our mandate. The
programmes that we have implemented are reflective of the priorities that our
government identified.
The people of this province entrusted us with the task of improving their
health status in 2004, we are therefore ready to discharge a fresh mandate
after our electoral victory as from May 2009.
For more information, contact:
Phumele Kaunda
Cell: 082 334 9851
Issued by: Department of Health, Gauteng Provincial Government
18 February 2009
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
