Thank you, Chairperson. In this financial year the national standards and assessment tools have been revised to ensure that the most critical areas where quality or safety could be at risk are adequately covered, for both hospital and primary level care. These standards will be extensively publicised and used throughout the health system to guide our work and our managers.
We will continue to review progress in relation to our previous findings in every province, as well as rolling out the performance review and benchmarking exercise so that we cover a quarter of our facilities this year. In doing this, we will be seeking the most effective ways to ensure that such an exercise is credible and provides our department at all levels with an objective assessment of our problems and the underlying or contributory causes, thus enhancing accountability.
It is important at the same time to build our own capacity to make the best use of these findings. These reports will give a detailed guide to managers, both those at facility level and those who provide support at provincial and national levels, as to what needs to be done to reach the required standards. The aim is to enable all these facilities to receive recognition as having met the required standards.
To turn the quality challenges around, we will use the methods shown internationally to be most effective. We will be pulling together a network of 100 targeted quality improvement projects around the country. These will be focused on measures to protect the safety of our patients, including the prevention of health care facility-acquired infections, long waiting times, plus basic cleanliness and maintenance of our facilities.
Through these projects, we will be able to improve poorly functioning systems, weak management and poor supervision, and hopefully motivate and energise our staff working at different levels, as well as identify and effectively solve some of the problems. This focus at delivery level is what in the end will make the services as a whole work for the benefit of our patients.
One particular mechanism that is widely used in the private sector to improve quality is through proactively analysing and addressing the complaints and concerns of our users, both in terms of providing an explanation and an apology where necessary to them, and taking strong measures to avoid their future repetition. This will be the main aim of our national 24-hour toll-free line, which will start operation during this financial year. It will work in close collaboration with all the provincial centres.
As the hon Minister has said, the implementation of the national health insurance represents a defining moment for the South African health system. It has been a long and winding road and many alternative considerations have been put on the table as to how best the country can achieve universal coverage. We have reached a decision we shall implement.
In the ANC's national health plan of 1994, it was clearly envisaged that the introduction of a mandatory prepayment-based national health insurance would go a long way towards the progressive realisation of ensuring that the South African population have coverage and access to adequate, good quality and affordable health care within the public and private sectors. Ke nako - it is time to implement such a system.
A key area in the strengthening of the health system and the implementation of the national health insurance is an integrated health information system. The World Health Assembly has identified the need to strengthen the health information systems in member states. The WHA subsequently identified the Health Metrics Network to facilitate evaluations and to develop strategic plans based on the needs to achieve this important objective within member states.
Some of the areas that would need attention in order to strengthen the country's health information system are the following: The current fragmented health information sub-systems; capacity building of our staff; establishment of an integrated national data warehouse for all data sources, and paying particular attention to enabling tracking of human resources, equipment, physical status of facilities and expenditure; and methods and estimation of provincial national health accounts, chronic disease surveillance, cause of death certification and survey methodologies.
The successful implementation of the national health insurance will need a very strong information and communications technology infrastructure. It is therefore paramount that an integrated national health information system which will cater for all service providers, public and private, is developed as part of an e-Health Strategy.
We have prioritised the improvement of service delivery in our hospitals. The Department of Health launched the Health Facilities Improvement Plan with 27 hospitals throughout the country. The Minister has already indicated that each province should add at least 10 hospitals to this pool. The 27 hospitals were appraised against core standards across seven domains, namely patient safety, patient clinical care, patient experience of care, patient access to care, management and leadership, infrastructure and environment or facilities management, as well as public health.
Facilities were a mixture of district, regional and tertiary hospitals across seven provinces. In working with these facilities we moved closer to creating good ownership and team building of all the internal stakeholders of the facilities. Our focus on hospital improvement plans will deal with patient experience of care in the health facilities.
In addition, we will address the backlog of equipment that needs to be provided for health workers to use. There are standards that are being developed to assist in the procurement and maintenance of these health technologies, so that levels of hospitals and health facilities have the appropriate technology. We are modernising equipment for cancer treatment. Along with this increased attention to technology, there shall be emphasis on the appropriate maintenance training. We shall also focus on equipment that is necessary for strengthening primary health care. We shall collaborate with other role-players, including academic, research, donor and nongovernmental organisations, in this regard.
Emergency medical services are at the centre of enabling our people to reach places of care in times of emergency. With the aim of reaching the targets of the Millennium Development Goals, of reducing maternal and child deaths by 75% and 67% respectively, the response of emergency medical services teams is crucial. To this end we are embarking on the modernisation of emergency services. We will be concentrating on purchasing more response vehicles, building more base stations and strengthening training programmes. The hospitals will also be equipped to deal with emergencies, particularly maternity emergencies.
Last but not least is the importance of the cleanliness of our facilities. The environmental health supervision will be increased, with the engagement of communities and other partners in creating a conducive environment for the patients and the health workers. Hospitals need to be places for healing and rehabilitation. They need to be clean and representative of the search for health.
Our budget shows that government is committed to health system strengthening. We want to return to the basics of primary health care, as my comrade hon Segale-Diswai said. We want to return health to the people, so we urge hon members to approve this budget. I thank you. [Applause.]