Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hom members, the ANC, in preparation for the 2009 national and provincial elections, developed a comprehensive policy framework that deals with the state of health in the country and a turnaround strategy to deal with the challenges. Out of this policy framework the ANC Subcommittee of Education and Health developed a ten-point plan that became the foundation for the department in its turnaround strategy. The department adopted this plan in 2009 - a plan that speaks directly to the experiences the ad hoc committee had during its provincial visits.
The visit highlighted the centrality of the revitalisation of the primary health care system. As in most public hearings, people complained about inaccessibility of health services and time spent waiting for an ambulance when needed. The policy framework and ten-point programme addresses the need to expand access to and coverage of primary health care services, as well as the incorporation of other priority programmes. It speaks to the training of community nurses who work together with community health workers in order to broaden the scope of their work.
The ANC policy framework and ten-point plan speak to the efficiency and management of health care systems. The plan speaks to the needs, it quantifies the totality of health care needs and ensures that those who are graduating in the different health sciences and disciplines meet the challenges we face. It ensures that the necessary clinical training, infrastructure and capacity at higher education institutions are in place and addressed by the Appropriation Bill.
The debate on the further training of nurses and whether we should not begin to restructure the nursing graduate course and relook the nursing diploma, is informed by some of the challenges that the ad hoc committee experienced during its visit. This is informed by the need to deepen experiential learning and deepen theory and practice with more hands practically available to carry out the work. Equally, the requisite skills and capacity speak to how we deal with internships and their proper supervision.
During the visit of the ad hoc committee the revitalisation of infrastructure was a critical point of discussion. Part of the ten-point plan to turn around health speaks to the hospital revitalisation programme and the role that different stakeholders can play in this. Again, from experiences during our visit, the need for a review of aspects of sanitation strategy became clear. National standards and norms remain a huge challenge and, clearly, municipalities are still struggling with internal systems that don't effectively deal with the totality of needs for sanitation.
The Khayelitsha public hearings revealed a lack of water and sanitation which poses a serious threat to health. Residents are compelled to use communal toilets which were not regularly maintained. Drainage systems are also often blocked. It was even worse in the Harare area where residents use the open toilet system, covering themselves with blankets to hide from people passing by in the street. The lack of decent toilets and water has an adverse effect on the health of residents, exposing them to illnesses such as malaria, TB and other infectious diseases.
A central challenge revealed by the oversight visit was the lack of provision of basic services in informal settlements. Health facilities, clinics and community health centres are critical, and this reaffirms government's acceleration of the delivery of health infrastructure to improve the quality of health care services to the communities through public-private partnerships.
The ANC health policy and ten-point plan put in place the strengthening of the health information system. This is informed by the experiences of the ad hoc committee in most public hearings and of complaints about loss of folders, other key data and specimens. The ANC health policy framework speaks to accelerating the delivery of health technology and information technology infrastructure so that there is ease of accessibility to patients' records.
The same strategy applies in the case of shortage or out of stock medicines. Information technology systems have assisted tremendously in being able to trace where to access medicines rather than to depend on paper-based information. This has minimised paperwork, simplified the management information system and provided far better and quicker service delivery to patients.
Any system is only as good as the human resource capacity that has to run it. The ten-point plan addresses the improved human resource planning and development and management training. In addressing the scarcity of doctors, the national human resource planning framework for health commenced in 2009. The plan draws upon historic work that had already been carried out by the Health Sciences Review Committee in 2007, which developed interventions to strengthen clinical training in higher education institutions. It also addressed factors associated with increasing the number of health professional graduates.
Clearly, the alignment of organograms must be informed by the needs of a given environment and the programmes that the department is required to carry out in terms of the Constitution and policy. Therefore, planning, monitoring and evaluation are critical to ensuring performance.
Each province has developed a provincial human resources health plan and these are being aligned to long-term plans known as service transformation plans and the ten-point plan. With these provincial plans, an assessment has been done of workforce challenges.
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. The continued mobilisation of communities on HIV and Aids programmes 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's comprehensive Manifesto Policy Framework and ten- point plan. What we need to do is to intensify measures to improve equitable access to health care provision. We must also involve communities in service delivery improvement to ensure adequate supply of appropriate medicines and other supplies, adequate safety for health institutions and health workers as well as the monitoring of the general cleanliness of facilities and the quality of care.
The first clause of the Freedom Charter says that the people shall govern. Now we are governing and all of us must govern, regardless of political affiliation. I thank you. [Applause.]