Hon Chairperson, hon members, comrades and distinguished guests, the Select Committee on Social Services undertook an oversight visit to two health centres, as well as one hospital revitalisation programme in Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday, 17 March 2010.
The objective of the visit was to carry out the committee's mandate on ensuring that provincial interests are taken into account in the national sphere of government. The committee interacted with the officials from the health centre and hospitals, and it was briefed on the challenges facing these hospitals and the health centre.
The overarching challenges that confronted the committee were a lack of and infrequent supply of water; a lack of electricity; poor roads; dilapidated hospital buildings; inadequate infrastructure; poor sanitation; a high number of HIV and TB infections, as well as meningitis; high rates of gastric ailments and herbal intoxication in children; a high unemployment rate; deep levels of poverty; staffing challenges in all the hospitals we visited; and, lastly, challenges in regard to financial resources to run the institutions.
The nature of the recommendations that the committee proposes are not new and are in many cases logical. These can be categorised as calling upon the Departments of Health and of Social Development to: assist with funding initiatives; make resources available in regard to training, human resources and medicines; strengthen existing campaigns of government; and fill the existing vacant nursing posts.
Our recent healthy debate in this House on the Intergovernmental Relations Framework is a stark reminder that we have to ensure that we make the necessary legislative and regulatory changes that we spoke of.
The oversight visit clearly demonstrated the challenges we have with regard to intergovernmental relations. There must be integration of service delivery plans in all spheres of government. The committee's recommendation is that the challenges outlined in the visit must be taken up with the respective departments so as to ensure that there is a qualitative change.
What we experienced during this oversight visit brings us back to issues of capacity to ensure service delivery and the implementation of ANC policy by government departments. The visit highlighted the centrality of the revitalisation of the primary health care system.
As in most public hearings, people complained about the inaccessibility of health services and time spent waiting for an ambulance when it was needed. The health policy framework of the ANC and the 10-point plan government programme on health address the need to expand access to and coverage of primary health care services, as well as the incorporation of other priority programmes. It speaks of the training of community nurses, working together with community health workers, so as to broaden the scope of their work.
The ANC policy framework and 10-point plan speak of the efficiency and management of health care systems. During the committee's oversight visit, the revitalisation of infrastructure was the critical point of discussion. Part of the 10-point plan to turn health around speaks to the Hospital Revitalisation Programme and the role that different stakeholders can play in this area.
Again, from the experiences during our visit the need for a review of aspects of the water provision strategy became clear. National standards and norms remain a huge challenge. Clearly, municipalities are still struggling with internal systems that don't effectively deal with the totality of the need for sanitation and water supply. A lack of decent sanitation and water has an adverse effect on people's health, exposing them to illnesses such as cholera and other infectious diseases.
The ANC health policy 10-point plan emphasises the strengthening of the health information system. The ANC health policy framework speaks to accelerating the delivery of health technology and information technology infrastructure so that there is ease of accessibility of patients' records. The same strategy applies in the case of a shortage of medicines or out of stock medicines. Information technology systems have assisted tremendously in being able to trace where to access medicines and track down the patients' medical history rather than having to depend on paper-based information. Any system is only as good as the human resource capacity that has to run it. This health plan addresses improved human resource planning, development and management training.
Central to the health policy framework is the mobilisation of communities for better health care and environmental protection. This strategy is underpinned by the basics of the health education and awareness programme using hygiene and morals as key levers. Continued mobilisation of communities in the HIV and Aids programme has been a very important achievement.
In conclusion, what the oversight visit has taught us is that the solutions and answers to the challenges we were confronted with around health are contained in the ANC comprehensive manifesto policy framework. What we need to do is to intensify measures to improve equitable access to health care provision and to involve communities in service delivery improvement to ensure an adequate supply of appropriate medicines and other supplies; ensure adequate safety for health institutions and health workers, as well as the monitoring of the general cleanliness of facilities and the quality of care; and speed up the revitalisation programme.
I table the report before this House for consideration. Thank you very much, Chairperson.
Debate concluded. Question put: That the Report be adopted.
IN FAVOUR: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western Cape.
Report accordingly adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.