the opening of Zalara Clinic, Eastern Cape province, Amathole District
5 October 2007
Programme Director
Premier of the Eastern Cape
MEC for Health
Mayor of Peddie Municipality and other councillors present here
Health and other government officials present
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning
Programme Director, I would like to thank everyone who came from near and
far to celebrate this important day of officially opening this clinic. Ladies
and gentlemen your presence here demonstrates that you are committed to
participating in improving your own health.
Programme Director, Zalara Clinic is a provincial government facility which
serves more than 10 000 people of Zalara, Qamdoboya, Mthathi and Tyeni
villages. The clinic was built in 2003 at a total cost of R3 million.
Ladies and gentlemen, this clinic offers comprehensive healthcare services
with the help of the following staff establishment. One chief professional
nurse, one professional nurse, two enrolled nurses, one general assistant and a
security personnel. As a community we have to work with these health workers
and support them so that they are able to respond to the needs of the community
as much as possible. Community has to participate in the functioning of this
facility through the clinic committee. Health workers should also work with the
community and also ensure that people who come to the facility are treated with
dignity and respect.
Programme Director, as government we recognise that there are still economic
and social inequities that still promote inequality within our society. We
believe that the unequal distribution of resources impacts on the quality of
life of people. Government is taking all possible measures to ensure that the
resources and services are distributed in an equitable manner to all
communities, irrespective of where they live.
Through our clinic building programme and various outreach activities from
the currently existing facilities, we are seeking to ensure that health
services are accessible to all our communities. The opening of this clinic here
today is a demonstration of our commitment to address the health needs of this
community and ensuring that we attain the best possible health outcomes.
In order to make a fundamental improvement in health equity, technical and
medical solutions such as disease control and medical care are without doubt
necessary, however they are not enough. What we need is empowerment of
individuals, families and communities to make informed choices about their
health and therefore contribute in improving the health of our population.
We have to adopt healthy lifestyles by ensuring that we eat nutritious food
and we exercise regularly. The world now faces a double-burden of malnutrition:
over and under nutrition. It is important that communities play their part in
addressing this problem by avoiding consumption of fats and highly processed
foods. We should instead eat more vegetables and fresh fruit which we can grow
in homes and save money. I would like you to promise me that when I visit you
again, each household will be having its own garden where you harvest your own
vegetables.
We also have to avoid health risk behaviours such as smoking, alcohol and
drug abuse. All of these things will assist us to prevent development of
non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, various types of cancer and
cardio-vascular diseases. These healthy practices including good nutrition also
assist in strengthening the immune system and delay progression from HIV
infection to development of AIDS defining conditions. But of critical
importance in the healthy lifestyle campaign is safe sexual behaviour to ensure
that people do not get infections in the first place and unwanted pregnancies
are avoided.
The different socio-economic status of men and women in almost every society
across the globe is perhaps the single most pervasive and entrenched form of
inequity. Therefore we have to continue with the struggle for gender equality
and to also ensure that women and children have access to basic services
including primary health care services that will be provided here.
I encourage you to bring your children regularly to the clinic particularly
to ensure that they are fully immunised to protect them from
vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and polio. Remember that early
treatment of childhood illnesses is critical in ensuring that our children grow
up to reach their full potential. Access to primary health care services has
been improved by increased availability of facilities which are geographically
closer to general populations and also by making primary health care free of
charge to all at the point of delivery. So there is no excuse for not coming to
the clinic to seek help.
I hope you will all ensure that this beautiful facility is kept as clean as
it is today and the community will protect it from bad elements who would want
to vandalise or steal from it. I trust that you as the communities will use it
to your best advantage. Programme Director, it is now a great pleasure for me
to officially open the Zalara clinic.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health
5 October 2007
Source: Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.za)
