Programme director
MECs for Health
Vice-Chancellor of UCT Professor Max Price
Cuban Diplomats – Acting Chancellor, Professor Juan Ceballos
The first Secretary of the Cuban Embassy, Ms Ibete Hernandez
Head of the Cuban Medical Collaboration, Dr Alex Carreras and all representatives from the Republic of Cuba
Deans of medical schools
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I am particularly proud to be here in Cape Town during a time when the eyes of the world are on our continent, our country, and indeed, this beautiful city which hosted one of the semi-final matches last night.
My ministry is proud to be part of this auspicious occasion with family members, friends and academic partners to celebrate the achievement of our 40 medical graduates as part of our collaboration with Cuba. In July last year, I was glad to officiate at the graduation ceremony of some 63 students at the University of Limpopo (Medunsa). This in our view is indicative of the fact that despite the challenges, the programme is continuing to produce results.
With the dawn of the new era in 1994 ushered by our democratic breakthrough, we were faced with the huge task of building a new state guided by the need to rollout services to all our people, regardless of their colour, gender and socio-economic status. Of course, the state that we inherited was not geared for this purpose.
One of the immediate things we had to do as a democratic state was to forge new partnerships with the international community and Cuba was identified as one of the countries that we could partner with especially in the area of healthcare.
Contrary to what is often said by the critics of this collaboration, our decision to partner with Cuba was primarily based on that country’s successes in the area of healthcare delivery especially primary health care (PHC). It is this latter strength PHC that I have identified as our key objective as we move forward. A curative health system that we are running has proven to be unsustainable and very expensive to run. We just have to go back to basics as a country!
As most of us in this room would know, this partnership between the two countries has been in existence for the past 14 years. Over the years, this programme has assisted in plugging the gap we have in terms of improving access to qualified health professionals in our system. Historically, the graduates from this partnership have and continue to serve in the most under-resourced parts of our health system with admirable results in many cases. Let me also point out that the candidates for the programme are drawn from under-privileged areas of our country, giving some of our young people an opportunity to realise their dream of practicing medicine. I am encouraged by the fact that since its inception the programme has produced 246 medical doctors who are providing service to our people especially in rural outlying areas.
Programme director, one of the critical challenges facing us as a sector is the low morale and caring ethos of our health professionals and I urge you young graduates to be agents of change wherever you find yourselves allocated. The fact that you have endured long periods of separation from your families in order to build a better future for yourselves and your country indicates your commitment to development in our country and I am confident that you will make your contribution to our public health system in as robust a way as possible.
On our side as the Department of Health we are working tirelessly in addressing the many challenges confronting the public sector in our country. We have started with the vigorous implementation of our 10 Point programme which is geared at overhauling the system through human resources development and quality of care among others. As you get ready to join us, please work with us in addressing the many challenges I have alluded to above which are complicated by the quadruple burden of disease that’s been unfolding in our country over the years.
As you take your professional pledge today, I implore you to undertake to uphold the principles indicated in the pledge throughout your careers in order to restore the values and ethics entrenched in the medical profession. In addition, I would like to implore you to uphold the principles of quality health care in our system. Your international and local experiences can only contribute to a greater awareness of your importance as part of the primary health care team and the attendant responsibilities that this entails for you as individuals, and for you as a member of that critically important team.
It is vital that you fix your minds on strengthening the quality of care and clinical experiences. You will, also, necessarily need to assist in efforts aimed at improving the effectiveness (and excellence) of these health care teams in relation to patient outcomes and experiences of health provision in this country.
Let me be fair and share with you what I said to your peers at a similar event at the University of Limpopo in July last year. As you take this oath today, your lives are going to change quite drastically. You will soon realise that over and above just being a medical doctor, you will in the process become a social counsellor, a marriage counsellor, a priest and many other roles that you may never have thought of. This is the nature of your profession especially in our context as a rural and developing society.
Programme director, I have mentioned the many challenges facing the public health sector in our country.
Guided by our overall vision of access to quality healthcare, my department has made some strides in addressing many of these challenges: which include long working hours, inadequate support and supervision in some health facilities, poor infrastructure, accommodation and lack of availability of critical equipment and medication. We are committed to a better approach in overcoming some of these challenges.
We have instituted an Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) as a retention strategy to acknowledge the critical role of health professionals in the public health system play. Of course, the first part of the OSD comprises the recently implemented salary improvements.
These improvements and changes are partnered with other interventions in the OSD package designed to improve and strengthen clinical performance and outcomes in our health system. My ministry is also working on ways to improve the management of our health facilities as a critical aspect of moving the health system forward. This includes work with provinces on a better alignment between health service needs and provision. As well as improving production, we have been working with our partners on more effective configuration (and skills mix) of health delivery on the ground, better and more effective retention mechanisms, improving the flow-through of students into the health sciences, and increasing resource mobilisation for strengthening clinical training and teaching.
Our collaboration with the Republic of Cuba through the Ministry of Public Health is one of the initiatives aimed at boosting the provisioning of health human resources in our democratic state. We will continue to work together with the Cuban Ministry of Public Health and our academic partners here at home to achieve this goal.
The ministry appreciates the sterling work and support provided by the South African Embassy in Cuba in managing the programme and views this as a practical demonstration of inter-departmental partnership. The ministry is also very committed to strengthening and retaining this collaboration with Cuba. In March this year the First Joint Academic meeting was held in Cuba between the Deans of Medical Schools involved in programme, in an effort to bridge the gaps between the medical curricula of the two countries. I am encouraged by the outcome of the meeting.
The country will continue to learn from Cuba’s successful approaches and models to develop, increase and retain our human resources in order to manage realities in the employment sector as a result of various causes such as; international migration, movement of doctors from public to the private sectors, retirement and death among others.
Please extend our most sincere and humble gratitude to the Leadership of the Republic of Cuba and the Ministry of Public Health back home.
The department acknowledges the overwhelming support and continued enthusiasm that has so far been displayed by our medical schools to accommodate and integrate our South African Cuban doctors into our health care system.
We realise that your commitment is based on your understanding and appreciation of the efforts of government to increase human capacity for the country and we thank you for that.
Our appreciation also goes to the parents and/or guardians, for all the sacrifices made to ensure the success of these graduates. Thank you for your support.
We thank the provincial leaders; MECs, Provincial Heads of Health and Provincial Managers and Coordinators for working jointly with the national department to identify communities without services of this nature, recruit potential students, support and nurture them emotionally and financially throughout their years of training. It’s a daunting task that requires full and ongoing commitment. Thank you very much.
I want to thank the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, Professor Max Price for availing your facilities to host this event. The management and the organising team that worked tirelessly with the Department of Health for the success of this event.
Thank you all for gracing this function by your presence.
Thank you.
