Issued by Department of Health
10 April 2008
The utilization of primary health care services has almost doubled over the past eight years with 101 million visits to clinics recorded in the financial year 2006/07 compared to 67 million visits received in 1998/99, Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said today.
Minister Tshabalala-Msimang was addressing the official opening of the two day Primary Health Care (PHC) conference that is convened by the Department of Health at Birchwood Conference Centre, in Boksburg.
Minister Tshabalala-Msimang attributed the increase in utilization of PHC clinics to improved access as result of construction of more than 1 600 clinics closer to where communities live, improved package of care available at clinics and the removal of user fees.
She said the average annual per capita expenditure on PHC was increasing gradually and had reached R256 by 2007. Efforts have also been made to decrease the inequities in the funding amongst health districts.
These efforts have led to significant improvement in service delivery and health outcomes. Immunization coverage stands now stands at 85% and the average number of new cases of diarrhoea per one thousand children under five (5) dropped by more than half from 258 in 2005 down to 119 in 2006. Diarrhoea is one of the most common childhood illnesses.
"These successes are as a result of determination of our health workers to deliver services to our people. There are some promising signs with respect to both HIV and TB two. The 2006 antenatal survey showed for the first time a decline in HIV prevalence particularly amongst the youth. TB cure rates are improving annually while defaulter rates are declining," said Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
She said pregnant women under the age of 20 years continue to show a significant decline in HIV prevalence from 16.1% in 2004 to 13.7% in 2006 and this can be attributed to the country's sustained prevention and health promotion interventions.
The national cure rate increased from 54.9% during the first six months of 2005 to 62.9% during the same period in 2006. For the first 6 months of 2005, the successful completion rate was 68.3% and this increased to 73.6% in the first 6 months of 2006.
"The national defaulter rate is 8.8% for the first two quarters of 2006 - down from 9.7% for the same period in 2005. We are determined as the Department to meet the target of 7% defaulter rate set by our President during this year's State of the Nation Address," said Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
She said human resource planning and development remains a challenging area in the ability of the health system to deliver adequate and quality health care.
"The development and launch of Human Resources Plan for Health has been a very significant step in establishing a framework for addressing the many challenges facing us on this front. We are determined to train the numbers, the type and quality of health workers that are needed to meet the health needs of our people," said Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
The PHC conference is expected to adopt a Declaration on Revitalizing PHC services before Minister Minister Tshabalala-Msimang deliver the closing address during the closing session which takes place as follows:
Date 11 April 2008
Time 12h00
Venue Birchwood Conference centre, Boksburg, Ekurhuleni
For more information: Contact Sibani Mngadi Spokesperson for the Department of Health 0827720161