The Head in the Department of Health Dr Sibongile Zungu will lead her team of managers as they declare the health department as a health promoting working environment.
“Helping people develop a healthy lifestyle, including healthy eating and physical activity, must begin with healthcare workers,” says Dr Sibongile Zungu Head of the Department of Health in KwaZulu-Natal. “However, it is also important that these behaviours are reinforced in the workplace setting. Managers can help workers to be active and make smart food choices by modelling these behaviours themselves.”
The managers want to show support to the initiative started by the MEC for Health Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo who last year promoted healthy lifestyles and even entered the ultimate human race, the Comrades Marathon. A number of initiatives have since been started at some hospitals such as King Edward VIII, Port Shepstone Hospitals and the department’s Head offices to follow on the preaching’s of the MEC.
The workplace-based initiative which seeks to increase employee awareness about primary prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is to be implemented in Pietermaritzburg, at Grey’s Hospital. The aims of the initiative are to utilise managers in the department of Health as change agents in their workplaces, and to develop a NCD model, whereby a workplace can benefit.
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a major cause of global morbidity and mortality. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that by 2020, one third of the global burden of disease will be attributable to NCDs (WHO, 1997). Mortality data indicate that South Africa is faced with a quadruple burden of disease, including infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and NCDs such as hypertension, as well as injuries and lately HIV/AIDS. The poor suffer the most from all four patterns of mortality. Based on the 1996 South African death registration, infectious diseases along with maternal mortality and conditions related to malnutrition, account for 30.6% of deaths, while chronic diseases account for 31.9% (Bradshaw, 2002).
Dr Zungu continues; “The scale of the challenge posed by the combined and growing burden of HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases demands an extraordinary response that we are well able to provide. Concerted action is needed to strengthen the primary health-care system, to integrate the care of chronic diseases and management of risk factors even in places of work and to apply interventions of proven cost-effectiveness in the prevention of such diseases. We are excited about the launch and hope it will provide sites of excellence for all employers; both in government and the private sector.”
The estimated mortality profile for South Africa for 2000 inform us that NCDs and the associated modifiable risk factors should be a priority in the current health agenda. Moreover, the KwaZulu-Natal government has recently launched a strategy which also aims at promoting healthy lifestyles (healthy food choices and an increase in physical activity) in a healthier environment, where nutritious food is available locally (through the One home, One garden programme), in particular fruits and vegetables, at reasonable cost.
Journalists are invited to this ground breaking event to be held as follows:
Date: Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Time: 10h30
Venue: Grey’s Hospital Nurses Home Hall
Contact:
Chris Maxon
Cell: 083 447 2869
