We have also, in welcoming the Minister's address here, taken cognisance of the question of strengthening our hospital-based services that will not substitute but support our primary health care programme. In this respect, we welcome the announcement about the priority hospitals that will receive attention in the revitalisation programme, for example the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in our province. This will go a long way in supporting our primary health care initiative. We have also undertaken other initiatives to mitigate the situation in which we find ourselves and have looked at where we could improve the ability and the performance of our hospitals. There are income- generating projects that we've undertaken to look at supporting resource mobilisation for a very needy public health care system.
We will also be focusing on the patient-centred quality improvement programme, again in response to the clarion call made by the Minister who called for cleanliness in our hospitals, patient safety, infection-control programmes, caring amongst the employees and those who serve our communities, and reducing the waiting times as well as ensuring continuous availability of drugs and medicines in our facilities. We support the Minister wholeheartedly, even as we respect and acknowledge the contribution made by some of the reputable pharmaceutical companies that have served the country by providing jobs and providing us with much-needed drugs, but we cannot do so at all costs. We support the Minister's call that if we cannot get them to lower the prices of drugs, we should get drugs elsewhere when we can, to be able to serve our people. So the Minister has our full support in that regard.
As part of the drive responding to the call made by the President and the Minister, we will also be targeting, during the period of the focused campaign on testing, two million people in the province to be tested. In this respect we have assured readiness across all spheres and increased the number of testing sites in order to be able to respond to the call. With our home-based care programme, we will be targeting more than 60 000 patients in the coming financial year. This is thanks to the support we received from the budget.
As I conclude, Chair, let me say that we have also enhanced our readiness for the purposes of 2010. The portfolio committee visited a number of facilities as recently as last Friday. They were visiting our province to look at the state of readiness in terms of the Fifa 2010 Soccer World Cup. We are assured of success, in spite of the challenges that we have, and we all welcome the leadership and the guidance that the Minister is giving. We will, without hesitation, call for support of this Budget Vote. Thank you. [Applause.]