Progress claimed to have been made towards strengthening effectiveness of health system

(Image: GCIS)

This is according to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga who yesterday (Wednesday 18 September) presented a progress report on the targets government set in the 2013 State of the Nation Address in February.

The minister, said 102 new hospital CEO's with the requisite qualifications, skills and expertise were appointed in January 2013 to close the skills gap in hospitals and clinics.

"To enhance the production of doctors in South Africa, the intake of medical students by academic institutions is rapidly being scaled up. A Public Health Education Fund has been created jointly with the private sector. The work done alongside the private sector, which resulted in the Social Compact, was one of the defining moments for effective collaboration on health," said Motshekga.

She highlighted that the key milestones were achieved towards the implementation of the three streams of the re-engineered Primary Health Care (PHC) model.

Three streams

The three streams included the establishment and deployment of district clinical specialist teams; strengthening of school health services and deployment of ward-based provincial health care outreach teams.

"A total of 185 specialists were appointed into district clinical specialist teams. These were 38 advanced midwives, eight anaesthetists, 34 family medicine specialists, 21 obstetricians, 18 paediatricians, 26 paediatric nurses and 40 PHC nurses," Motshekga noted.

Integrated School Health Programme

On the delivery of Integrated School Health Programme (ISHP), Motshekga reported that a set of revised indicators were introduced on 1 April 2013. A total of 3.85% (368 of the annual target of 9,666 schools) of the Quintile 1 and Quintile 2 schools were covered by the school health teams to provide services in accordance with the ISHP.

"This was significantly lower than the planned quarterly of 17.5% (2416 schools)," she said.

A total of 6.6% (8,072 of the annual target of 80,400 learners) Grade 8 learners in Quintile 1 and Quintile 2 schools were covered by the ISHP. This actual performance was inconsistent with the quarterly target of 25% (20,100 learners).

The National Health Amendment Bill, which aims to improve the country's health system, was also approved by the National Assembly. This provides the legal framework for the establishment of an independent Office of Health Standards Compliance to promote and ensure quality assurance in the health sector.

Integrated Health Facility Infrastructure

On the delivery of Integrated Health Facility Infrastructure, Motshekga reported that provinces spent 16% of the total available budget of the health facility revitalisation grant. Hospital revitalisation grant spent 15%, and health infrastructure grant spent 14% and 19% on the nursing colleges grant.

"Based on the infrastructure reporting model, 1677 contracts were funded, two contracts were cancelled, 724 are reported to be at different stages of construction, 619 at different stages of planning and 332 were in retention."