By Libuseng Nyaka
QWAQWA – A Democratic Alliance (DA) member of the Free State legislature, Mariette Pittaway, raised concern at the appalling situation at Mofumahadi Manapo Mopeli regional hospital which is also piloting the National Insurance programme.
Pittaway was reacting to health MEC Mathabo Leeto’s budget for 2023/24. Leeto tabled a budget of R332.1 million, that represents a slight increase of R20.9m on April 5, 2023, at Phuthaditjhaba Multi-purpose hall.
“We have a serious problem in the health department, Madam Speaker. As proof of this, let me talk about Mofumahadi Manapo Mopeli regional hospital here in Qwaqwa. Few years ago, I raised numerous issues regarding this hospital; three years later nothing has changed and the situation continues to deteriorate.
“Lack of adequate security, interrupted water supply, damaged equipment and too many other problems. Our country’s critical energy crisis which result in rolling black outs is a serious problem for our government institutions. But this government has failed to ensure that the health department has uninterrupted electricity. In this area local suppliers refused to supply diesel as they were not paid on time.”
ANC MPL Vusi Tshabalala, supported the budget, saying the introduction of National Health Insurance is one of the best ideas that will see even poor people getting quality treatment.
“The NHI will see the majority of our people enjoys the right to quality health care.”
This after Leeto told the sitting that Clinical Health Services aim to render Primary Health Care services, including community-and facility-based services, Forensic Pathology Services, District, Provincial, Tertiary and Central Hospital.
She said progress has been made in terms of doing away with long queues at the clinic.
“ In order to mitigate against this, we have introduced chronic medication pick-up points and distribution points closer to where our people live. We have also implemented an appointment system at PHC facilities; however, we are still experiencing challenges at facilities in densely populated areas. It is for this reason that we continue to build new clinics within the confines of our resources.
“To ensure reduction of preventable deaths due to communicable diseases, the Department is focused on implementing the HIV 95-95-95 strategy, which entails intensifying HIV prevention, case-finding, and treatment. The strategy focuses on getting 95% of HIV positive people knowing their status, 95% of those that know their HIV status being on antiretroviral treatment (ART) and 95% of those on treatment being virally suppressed. I am proud to announce to this August house that the Free State performed better than any other province in the country, as at November 2022.
“Four of the five Free State district’s districts managed to be among the top 13 of the 52 districts in the country on achieving the previous strategy of 90-90-90, while the country has moved towards the revised 95-95-95 strategy.
“Thabo Mofutsanyana district, with the support of the USAID/Right to Care, is the second best performing district in the country towards achieving the 95-95-95 targets. The current performance of the Free State is at 94-86-93. We are confident we will reach this target by intensifying community and index testing; welcoming clients who were lost to follow-up, back to our clinics, and strengthening treatment compliance through adherence clubs.
The HIV prevention strategies include: condom distribution, medical male circumcision and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which is implemented for HIV negative people who are at risk of contracting HIV and has been rolled out to all facilities.”
