Programme Director, Dr Badu Mothusi,
Acting Head of Department, Mr Andrew Kyereh,
DDG for Health Services, Dr Andrew Robinson,
Chief Director for Ngaka Modiri Molema District, Mr Gerhard Henning,
And other executive Managers of the Department present here today,
The CEO for Mahikeng Provincial Hospital, Mr Adrian Lourens,
Our partners from Allergen represented here by Mr Tebogo Molebatsi
Our partners from the South African Council for the Blind, represented by Mr Jace Nair,
Health Professionals present here today,
Employees of the Department,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dumeleng Bagaetsho!
Good day to you all!
We meet here today for a very important occasion! We are official launching a park home facility which will no doubt contribute to our efforts of tackling blindness and improve the eye sight for the majority of our people in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District and the entire province.
It was just last year around October on this same venue that we had the signing of the memorandum of understanding agreement between the North West Department of Health and the Fred Hollows Foundation of South Africa with the common goal of accelerating the provision of eye care services for all our people regardless of where they live. The fact that we are here again early in 2013 with more of our partners in Allergen and the South African Council for the Blind demonstrates just how serious we are about the provision of eye care services to all our people in the province.
I am forever grateful to these partnerships because we can only improve the health profile of our people if we act together in unison. We could not have achieved what we have if we were just depending only on the limited resources of government and the department.
The World Health Organisation in partnership with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness launched a global plan for the elimination of avoidable blindness by the year 2020, called Vision 2020. This initiative identified cataract, glaucoma, diabetes retinopathy, childhood blindness and refractive error as the leading causes of blindness. These have been selected not only because of the burden of blindness that they represent but, also, because of the feasibility and affordability of interventions to prevent and treat these conditions. In April 2000, the then South African Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala Msimang signed a declaration to support Vision 2020 initiative.
The Global Initiative for the Elimination of Avoidable Blindness (Vision 2020: The Right to Sight) sets a major challenge requiring a significant increase in the provision and uptake of eye care services. If the increasing trend in blindness is to be reversed, then access to eye care services needs to be made more widely available.
Success in implementing the VISION 2020: The Right to Sight initiative will be achieved through collaborative efforts, integrated into the district health care system. It must also be incorporated into national interventions. This involves planning, developing and implementing sustainable eye care programmes, supported collectively by government, non-governmental agencies, private organisations, as well as other organisations involved in blindness prevention.
The core strategies of Vision 2020 program comprise:
- Disease control: facilitate the implementation of specific programmes to control & treat major causes of blindness.
- Human resource development: support training of ophthalmologist & other eye care personnel to provide eye care.
- Infrastructure & appropriate technological development.
The Health Programmes Management Chief Directorate (HPM CD) engaged the Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness which is a branch of the South African National Council for the Blind to assist with the strengthening Eye Health Services in the province. The Bureau for the prevention of Blindness engaged Allergen which committed 1million to this endeavour. Mafikeng Provincial Hospital was identified to benefit from this sponsor.
Both the short term and long term goals were developed. The long term goal is to have a state of the art eye care centre here at Mafikeng Provincial Hospital which will lure professionals to come to the province and also contribute towards the training of eye specialists. This means that the realisation of this goal will also impact on the recruitment and retention of the eye health professionals to the province.
The short to medium term goal involved creating or increasing the working space for the eye health professionals and admission space for the patients by creating temporary structures. This decision led to trying to identify some unused space around the hospital or create one by purchasing of a Parkhome. After the commitment of 1 million by Allergen an agreement was reached with the hospital to alleviate the space pressure by purchasing a park-home which will be used as a ward to admit patients with eye related problems.
The department therefore, would like to thank both the Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness and Allergen for the assistance. It is also important for both organisations to note that the department has not realised its ultimate goal of having a permanent eye health centre and if possible we need to continue to work together as partners to reach this goal.
I hereby officially declare this eye care park home launched so that it can immediately start rendering eye care services to our people.
I thank you all for your interest and willingness to contribute positively towards improving the health profile of our communities. May we continue to work together to give eye sight to many of our people. Indeed, working together we can do more!
I thank you!
