Honourable Premier
My Colleagues in the Executive Council
The Legislature
Members of all political parties
The Trade Union formations
The national Department of Health, Director-General Thami Mseleku and the team
Our officials in the province and our system of local government
And all delegates
Programme director,
We have come to the close of the summit.
I have no doubt that indeed this was a true festival of ideas whose outcomes as we heard from the reports of the various commissions will definitely serve as our compass in our efforts to provide better healthcare services. I say this because we have listened carefully to all the inputs and we commit that we will do all that we can to make sure that our system of health indeed do respond to needs of our people in the manner in which you have seen it possible.
We will work this path together because together we can do more. We will not fail to take the first steps. The quest to provide better healthcare services to all is part of our strategic objective of creating a truly democratic country.
Programme director,
I feel very much rejuvenated by many of the inputs in this summit. You have once more reaffirmed our fundamental perspectives on the transformation of health. These perspectives we have articulated over the years.
Programme director we said, our efforts to transform the health care system should have the following outcomes:
* Ensuring that that emphasis is on health and not only on medical care
* Encouraging and developing comprehensive healthcare practices that are in line with international norms, ethics and standards.
* Emphasising that all health workers have an equally important role to play in the health system, and ensuring that mechanisms are created for effective community participation, involvement and control.
* Introducing management practices that are aimed at efficient and compassionate healthcare delivery.
* Ensuring respect for human rights, and accountability to users of health facilities and the public at large.
* Reducing the burden and risk of disease affecting all South Africans.
Programme director, as we said during the opening of this summit, clearly most these perspectives we articulated over the years have now been endorsed by the millions of South Africans through their vote for the ruling party - the ANC and have now become part of our government programme of action.
Programme director,
There is no doubt about the correctness of our policies to transform health; the key question is what steps are we collectively prepared to take to turn things around. Our commission's reports have gone into details about some those steps we need to take.
One of the important issues I want to emphasize is the issue of values which are today part of our constitution. Health as a sector must embrace these values too. All of us as South Africans are enjoined to these democratic values which are part of our constitution. So, all of us irrespective of the challenges we face must act in a manner consistent with the values espoused in our constitution.
What our institution would become start which each and every individual who is part of this department. You do not demand to leave in a better world yet you act in a manner that is completely inconsistent with the values of a better world. It starts with you! I want to thank the Premier and my colleagues for raising this matter sharply.
Programme director,
We will in the immediate utilise the platform of our budget vote speech to look at how we can accommodate the easy to do resolutions and further we will utilise the government planning system to look at areas of our work that needs reprioritisation.
Programme director,
Let me also take this opportunity to thank the Premier, MECs, members of the Legislature, the experts who shared their views with us in this summit, delegates for incisive inputs and officials who worked very hard on helping to shape the content and logistics for the summit.
Thank you very much.
Issued by: Department of Health, Free State Provincial Government
17 July 2009
Source: Department of Health, Free State Provincial Government
(http://www.fshealth.gov.za)
