Journalists are invited to join the Deputy Minister of Health Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, Eastern Cape MEC for Health and the Mayor of OR Tambo Municipality at commemoration ceremony for World Health Day and their visit to households around Mthatha.
The engagements will encompass community dialogue; door to door campaigns; a 5 kilometers walk; a Rhema church congregation address by the Deputy Minister; presentations of the health status report in the area; and visits to health facilities to assess the health status in a bid to ensure government attains its aim of achieving a healthier nation where people will live longer, suffer less illness and easily access health services.
The National Department of Health is in the process of “overhauling the healthcare system” of South Africa. This process is intended to bring about an improved service provision of healthcare for all South Africans and ensure they have access to appropriate, efficient, and quality healthcare services regardless of their economic status.
This is part of the strategy employed by the department to salvage success of the National Health Insurance which is presently piloted in 11 districts of all the nine provinces in South Africa.
The programme for district health visits is a continuation of a commitment by the Ministry of Health, the first of such visits was commenced in 2011 whereat the Deputy Minister undertook visits of the same nature to other of the overall 52 health district across the country. OR Tambo District is bottom of the district pile according to the District Health Barometer launched yesterday, hence a visit is considered in a bid to improve the health status therein.
The team will interact with health workers, health facility management, community and other stakeholders through dialogue in an effort to understand the level of service delivery, successes in terms of implementation of programmes and the challenges faced by facilities and the community as a whole.
Furthermore, Sunday, 7 April 2013 is World Health Day and the World Health Organisation (WHO) theme for this year is “high blood pressure”. High blood pressure is also known as hypertension, which is caused by high salt ingestion and it increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failures.
About 60% of the salt consumed by South Africans comes from processed food and people are encouraged to reduce their daily sodium consumption themselves, to at least 5g a day. There are salt laws in South Africa, and the department is embarking on an education campaign to raise awareness of these laws, the dangers of eating too much salt, and the contents Non-communicable Diseases Strategy that will be launched by the department very soon.
Hence the Deputy Minister will visit households and communities around Mthamtha, OR Tambo District in the Eastern Cape Province, as part of the campaign’s lined up activities.
Details:
Date: Sunday, 7 April 2013
Time: 7h00
Venue: OR Tambo District Municipality Offices, Mthata, Eastern Cape.
Media contact:
Khutso Rabothata, Manager: Communication and Media Liaison Office of the Deputy Minister of Health
Cell: 082 487 1828
Tel: 012 395 8481 or 021 461 4560
E-mail: rabots@health.gov.za or ksrabothata@gmail.com
