premier

During a meeting with UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, the Premier of KwaZulu Natal, Dr Zweli Mkhize highlighted that progress made in the province has begun to turn around the AIDS epidemic in the South African Province which has been most affected by HIV.

KwaZulu Natal has made remarkable progress in expanding access to antiretroviral treatment as well as in reducing new HIV infections. From 2011 to the beginning of 2013 more than 300 000 men have undergone medical male circumcision decreasing their risk of HIV infection. Although it remains high, the overall HIV prevalence among 15-24 years old dropped from 31% in 2009 to 25.5% in 2011.

The U.S. Embassy in Pretoria is seeking an individual for the position of Public Health Specialist, Provincial Liaison Lead in the PEPFAR Office.

Basic Function of Position:

GAUTENG’s treasury and an "administrative team" made up of medical and supply management professions are intervening to turn around the province’s health department, which has been struggling for years to build and maintain hospitals and pay its bills.

The Gauteng provincial executive committee has invoked section 18 of the Public Finance Management Act for the intervention and insisted on Monday that this was not the same thing as being placed under administration.

Premier Dr Zweli Mkhize says a group of medical students who left the province for medical training in Cuba will come back and assist with the rollout of the National Health Insurance (NHI).

Mkhize was speaking at King Shaka International Airport at a farewell function for 115 students who were selected to study medicine in Cuba as part of the South Africa/Cuba Medical Training Programme started 16 years ago.

“Many of our people received military training in Cuba as we fought against the apartheid government. Now that we have defeated apartheid, our main focus is the fight against the burden of diseases. These students have been selected from all districts in the province with the assistance of mayors and District Aids Councils.

The dire state of some government hospitals was brought home when Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane made a surprise visit to the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital in Johannesburg.

The premier was shocked to learn that patients had to wait for more than 24 hours at times to get a bed.

Mokonyane spoke to patients during her walkabout. One of the patients told her that she had been admitted but had been waiting at the hospital for two days for a bed to become available.

One of those on the bed waiting list, Jennifer du Plessis, 50, who has to be pushed in a wheelchair, could not hold back her tears while telling Mokonyane about how badly the hospital staff treated her.

Following a Health-e report last week and after initially denying it, Dr Nomonde Xundu, the head of health in Gauteng, has now confirmed that she is leaving the distressed unit after serving only 11 months of her three-year contract.

Dr Nomonde Xundu decided to cut short her tenure as head of health in Gauteng and will be leaving at the end of this month. This was announced yesterday at a small media briefing to give feed-back on the turn-around strategy devised to breathe life into the ailing health system of Gauteng, by Health MEC, Hope Papo.  

Mother to Child transmission of HIV Aids dropped to an all time low of 2.1% in 2011 in the province, which has the highest rate of HIV Aids in sub-saharan Africa.

Celebrating the milestone, the provincial government attributed the inroads made in fighting HIV and Aids to the premier’s flagship Sukuma Sakhe Project and its anti-retroviral therapy outreach programme.

Sukuma Sakhe, meaning, Stand up and Build, is a programme which focuses on encouraging all sectors of society to change their own lives rather than only relying on the government to deliver. One of the key components of the programme is the role of health workers and communities.

It seems the health workers have played their part birlliantly.

Another day. Another story about state patients dying and suffering. Another distressed letter from desperate health workers. Another call for action and accountability from civil society. Another statement from government. Another day in Gauteng.

A week has hardly gone by in the past year without a media report detailing a horror in a Gauteng hospital or clinic.

Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane on Wednesday called for a review of the funding of provincial hospitals and the filling of their critical vacancies.

“While the province is working hard to implement the long-term turnaround strategy on the provisioning of health care, I believe the immediate need to provide care for patients may not be compromised.”

She ordered the provincial health and infrastructure development departments to put into effect decisions made at a recent meeting she had with the CEOs of major hospitals.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize has expressed concern that there were 329 021 people who tested HIV-positive from April 2011 to March 2012 in the province.

The figure was contained in a report tabled on Wednesday during a meeting of the provincial council on Aids in Pietermaritzburg.

The meeting was attended by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi; Mkhize, who is also the chairman of the council; and health MECs from various provinces, among others.

Issues on and relating to HIV/Aids, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis were also discussed, and each district in the province compiled a report on the topic.