Chair, colleagues, I want to recognise the presence of the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi; the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, my role model; the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, my friend; colleagues from other provinces, and also the hon members of this august House. Indeed, it's good to be back in the NCOP. Comrades, friends, ladies and gentlemen, it is my honour and privilege to stand before you to elaborate on the plans of the Gauteng department of health and social development, and the things that we are doing to try and respond to the policies pronounced by the Minister and our President.
The improvement of a health care system depends on having competent managers who know their story. We are happy to report that we have almost completed the task in the province. Where there were no chief executive officers, they are appointed. In turn, we are expecting CEOs to make sure that the resources of the state are properly utilised; and to ensure, at the end of the day, the quality care of the ordinary citizens is improved for the better as well as minimising the adverse incidents that we have been registering over the past few years.
I'd like to inform this august House that we are gradually kicking the bad elements out of the system; that is part of strengthening the health care system. Those who are stealing patients' food, medicines and other things are being kicked out of the system. We have, with members of the portfolio committee in the legislature, launched a programme called Operation Buyisa, which is simply about returning things that belong to the hospitals because, indeed, they don't belong where they are in our communities. We want to say to our communities that they should be vigilant. Wherever you see something that is engraved with the name of the hospital, please return it. This is part of our effort to make sure that the state resources are efficiently utilised.
In improving the primary health care systems, we are focusing on strengthening our clinics in the province as they are required to treat patients before they walk into any hospital. Half of the cases that are dealt with in hospitals are required to be dealt with at hospital level. Some of the challenges are caused by nurses who turn people away. They take long lunch hours and tea breaks and we want to end that culture. We are working with unions in dealing with this issue because it compromises the quality of care to our patients. Hon members, we want this to come to an end because it has been going on for too long.
We are working with Cuban doctors in Gauteng. Those Gauteng doctors were trained in Cuba to strengthen the primary health care system. I am confident that we are going to realise this and to ensure that the ordinary citizens in our province are able to get care at the appropriate level.
Furthermore, we want to ensure that all our clinics have appropriate medication and people going there get cough mixtures, Panado and whatever they need should be available. The CEO of the medical depot knows what to do if there is a shortage in availability of medication; otherwise his job is on the line. We are, in turn, expecting all nurses who are running clinics to make sure that stock is available in all clinics because those who are heading those institutions have a responsibility and a duty. We are also saying that patients cannot be turned away because nurses are having lunch. Patients cannot be turned away because nurses do not want to treat them; this must come to an end.
In addition, after the World Cup all the new ambulances we are procuring will be deployed in each and every clinic. We are confident that patients are going to arrive on time at hospitals, especially those who need to be transferred from the clinics to hospitals.
During this financial year, again as part of strengthening the primary health care system, we are extending operating hours at a lot of clinics in the province as well as at community health centres because we believe that Gauteng is a cosmopolitan province. Sometimes people work until after 16h00. By 19h00 they want to walk into a clinic; there must be someone who can help them, including on weekends. The majority of our clinics now do open on Saturdays between 08h00 and 13h00. Very few are operating on Sundays. As part of strengthening the health care system, again, we are making sure that the services that were procured by our Gauteng Shared Service Centre, GSSC, in the past on the procurement of medication, equipment, linen and food are decentralised to hospitals so that I hold the CEOs accountable on what is happening at hospital level. It shoud not be that everything must be done by the GSSC or head office. We believe that those things are central to the success of what we want to do, including the advertisement of posts as well as the employment of people, which must be done at hospital level so that the head office focuses on issues of monitoring and evaluation and making sure that the right policies are implemented by those who are at service level.
The Minister is calling for a partnership with the private sector which talks to the 10-point plan. We are working very closely with the private sector. Some doctors' and nurses' rooms have already been refurbished and the conditions are much better than they were before. We are renovating the mother and child wards. The following hospitals have benefited so far and many more are still likely to benefit: Chris Hani-Baragwanath; Dr George Mukhari; the Far East Rand; Lilian Ngoyi; Charlotte Maxeke; and many more are in line. We are working with the private sector and the following has been done: the doctors' quarters and nurses' rest rooms and the mother and child wards and theatres. Discovery is paying for some of our specialists as part of the support given by the private sector. The private sector is also donating equipment that we need in the province, which includes stethoscopes, haemoglobin, HB, meters and many other things. We are confident that, with the mobilisation of the private sector across the board, the province will improve the health care system for the better and the citizens will be much happier as a result.
We are working very hard to reduce maternal mortality in the province. As the Minister and the late Deputy Minister stated before, too many women are dying due to a shortage of blood. We have engaged with the blood bank and many of the hospitals are going to be having a 24-hour availability of blood. Where we cannot have the blood bank full-time, fridges given by the blood bank will be available.
Regarding the programme on immunisation against polio and measles, our target is to reach 100% coverage in the province with the major emphasis on the Tshwane region; and that is what we are focusing on now. In 2009, we reached more than one million children. Considering the work we are doing currently, we are confident with the private sector as our strategic partner. For example, ER24 are even supplying us with vehicles and employing nurses for us to be able to complete this hard task of immunisation. We want to sincerely thank them.
On the soccer World Cup, more than 50% of the soccer World Cup games will be played in Gauteng. Our state of readiness was given impetus by the recent visit of the late Deputy Minister Sefularo. I'm happy to say to the hon members that, in his memory, we guarantee as a province that everything we committed to, to him and the delegation when they came to visit the province, is going to be delivered.
These are the things we promised to deliver: To make sure that the state of our hospitals is such that they are ready for accidents and emergencies; where intensive care units, ICUs, will be required, those facilities will be made available as well as making sure that our ambulance services stand ready to service the nations that will be coming here; and also to make sure that those designated neighbouring clinics and pharmacies are going to be operating 24 hours a day, as well as ensuring that employees who are due for leave in June do not go on leave.
Lastly, we are working with the army to obtain services such as helicopter services as well as securing the additional space we need in case we are going to need this for mortuary services, but two of our mortuaries stand ready to be utilised for the 2010 World Cup. Hon members, the Gauteng province supports the Budget Vote and we stand ready to support the national policies. Thank you very much.