I have the pleasant task of introducing a comprehensive Annual Report for 2001/2, which not only accounts for our utilisation of allocated resources but also explains the approaches that have been adopted by the Department of Health.
The complexity and richness of the health field itself dictate the spread of the Department's activities. It is impossible for us to ignore developments such as genetic modification of foods and the possibilities of human cloning, although the more common realities might be hunger among our nation's people and birth defects arising from nutritional deficiencies.
In this context, the Strategic Framework, arranged around 10 major goals, remains an important tool for prioritising and focusing our efforts. I am convinced that the framework is as relevant now as it was when we adopted it in 1999, particularly as it represents a balance between building health systems, on the one hand, and managing health risks, on the other.
The concept of managing health risks is, of course, a new formulation of the notion of preventive health and it began to emerge at the most recent World Health Assembly. It is a useful concept because it is specific and it builds confidently on the growing body of knowledge about causal links between the environment, personal lifestyles and health. It describes very well what we are trying to do in relation to HIV and AIDS, malaria, nutrition, tobacco control and the management of pregnancy and labour - to list just a few relevant areas. The concept of health risk management also suggests that there is urgent work to be done in our country to reduce deaths due to homicide, accidents and suicide that take such a heavy toll among our young men.
Along with strategies to improve the health of the nation, the Department is pursuing a range of activities to improve the quality of service in our hospitals and clinics. Fundamental to improving services are the development of better information systems and the conduct of relevant research. The year 2001/2 saw renewed efforts to address persistent inequities in health care funding with a change in policy for the allocation of conditional grants. A range of strategies to rationalise and strengthen support services also came to fruition in this period. They gave rise to new institutions that provide blood services and laboratory services and that will lay the foundation for increased local production of vaccines.
The human resource dimension of inequity remains a particularly challenging one. The quality of any health care service is only as good as its practitioners. And the persistent shortage of skilled professionals in rural areas remains one of our most fundamental challenges. It is a matter that will receive our concerted attention - at all relevant levels of the public health sector - in the year ahead.
In the public health system, where responsibility is exercised concurrently by the national government and provinces and where municipalities play a vital service role, political office bearers have a special role to play in ensuring that the system works in a co-ordinated way. The provincial MECs for Health and I have tried at all times to maintain the kind of co-operation between spheres of government that facilitates action on the ground.
A report of this nature tells a story of effort and commitment by countless individuals within the public health sector and in associated structures - the statutory bodies, training institutions, research bodies, trade unions, donor organisations and foreign governments, multilateral agencies and partners in the nongovernmental and private sectors. I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to all who have played a role in making things happen. And, in receiving and tabling this report, I would especially like to recognise the creative leadership of Director-General of Health, Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba.
Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
Minister of Health