Programme director,
Honourable Executive Mayor,
Acting Head of Department (HOD), Dr Andrew Robinson,
Exec Manager for Dr Kenneth Kaunda Health District, Dr Uma Nagpal,
CEO for Klerksdorp-Tshepong Complex, Ms Kathy Wiebe-Randeree,
MMCs and other Councillors present,
Other programme managers and officials present,
Members of our valued partner, Broadreach Healthcare,
Other private healthcare partners present here today,
Our health professionals, doctors and nurses,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
We meet here today just two days after we commemorated Human Rights Day which was on 21 March. We also know that health is one of the fundamental and basic human rights. As the North West Department of Health we are entrusted with the responsibility of providing this basic human right. It is a constitutional right and we dare fail to provide our people with quality health care services. It is for this reason that we are forever looking at creative ways of improving the quality of healthcare and better ways of ensuring that every citizen of our country and of the North West province has access to this basic human right.
In ensuring universal access to healthcare, our country South Africa envisioned a National Health Insurance (NHI) as one of the key Polokwane Resolution of the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC). Plans are already advanced to start with a phased-in implementation of the NHI by 2012. So we are forced to always strengthen delivery of quality healthcare services to our people as a fundamental right which is entrenched in the Constitution of the Republic and which our people should enjoy.
The 1996 statistics indicate that approximately 65% of people in the North West province live in non urban areas. The population density is 31 people per square kilometre, which is slightly less than the national average of 36 people per square kilometre and considerably less than Gauteng’s ±468 people per square kilometre.
I paint this picture so that you all realise the magnitude of work that is before us, if we are to really make sure that we oblige to the constitutional mandate of rendering quality healthcare services to all our people as a basic human right.
So, the vastness of our province, the fact that it is predominantly rural and shortage of resources that we face are serious challenges. The good thing is that we acknowledge these challenges and tackle them head on.
Rural development means dealing decisively with service delivery backlogs in rural areas, bringing the best services closer to our people, fulfilling their constitutional rights and pushing back the frontiers of the apartheid legacy which was meant to leave rural areas underdeveloped and create dwellings in urban areas which were meant to make our people leave their homes and in turn develop these urban areas as markets for apartheid masters to benefit from the little purse of our impoverished communities. The African National Congress (ANC) has always been conscious of this fact and that is why rural development is in place.
Today, rural development is finding expression! Klerksdorp-Tshepong Hospital Complex is benefiting from this programme of government. We are happy that health services have been expanded here. An expanded Tshepong Wellness Clinic will serve our people better. The challenges of lack of space on the site has been a problem as we experienced long queues and overcrowded patient areas for patients who are receiving treatment at wellness clinic.
We must thank our partner Broadreach Healthcare for the contribution and the donation they put forward to make this possible. The ANC led government has always encouraged all of us to work together. The new health dispensation calls for a multi-sectoral approach to the delivery of quality healthcare services. The private health sector, donor organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), our governance structures, dikgosi, municipalities and indeed our communities are critical if we are to succeed in our mandate. “Working Together We can Do More!”
A centralised pharmacy at this level of health care is what we need!We are doing away with centralisation of services at the Provincial Head Office and decentralising to this level where district managers are expected to take charge and account. You will do better if you manage your own services here. If there is perhaps shortage of medication and drugs here, you can quickly pick that up and address the problem. So I believe this centralised Pharmacy will indeed help us to improve supply of medication and drugs.
If we do that well, our people will be the beneficiaries of a good system as we want it to be. Those who qualify for the ARVs will be initiated in time and without interruptions. On the other hand we will be able to focus on educational programmes and offering preventative campaigns, nutritional and psychological support rather being boggled down with technical issues in the boardrooms.
I also wish to state that I am happy with the additional 40 multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) beds that we will have with the Phase 2 of our MDR TB Project here in Klerksdorp – Thsepong Hospital Complex. This hospital complex is our bride in the province and in the country for managing TB. I wish to applaud the management of Klerksdorp – Tshepong for the good they are doing here. Well done and keep up the good work… Good deeds are always followed by good rewards and that is why we progress by making this facility much bigger to accommodate more patients and to improve TB cure rate.
It is important to know that TB is curable and this is the message I have been spreading in the media since the beginning of this month. TB patients must know that though we are making more beds available for MDR TB, we also do not want them to get to the stage of MDR. Patients must be encouraged to complete their medication within the prescribed period and cure TB before we get to the critical stage of MDR or even XDR. Tomorrow is World TB Day and this is message we will continue to spread because with MDR and XDR TB, we need more expensive resources for cure.
Health is a very complex discipline and that is why we must always appreciate and encourage research. I therefore appreciate the “Are Batleng TB Research Project”. We are aware of the fact that TB accounts for 25-30% of deaths in this hospital while HIV accounts for 60%. At the same time we have challenges like patients who present late, are unaware of their status and often are told of HIV status at point of death. I believe this Research Project can help us on how we can best address these problems.
Once more, let us continue to work together to improve access to quality health care services and ultimately improve the health profile and the lives of our people.
I thank you! Ke a Leboga!
