MEDIA STATEMENT
BY THE
INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
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IFP MEDIA
STATEMENT BY: 21 April 2008 "Where has the Minister of Health been for the last 5 years to enable her to comment that "reviewing the cause of infant deaths was the best way to identify weaknesses and gaps in the government systems throughout SA."? Dying infants do not need more words and reports covering them, they need a government of compassion that promotes decentralisation and freedom of choice." "UNDP Human Development Report for 2007/08 showed South Africa and other countries in Africa as way down in the scale of infant mortality. Research done in SA alone has revealed that the rate of infant mortality is climbing steadily. It needs no further investigation into the cause of this decline but definitive action to stem it. AIDS policy still shows no urgency, and public hospitals are not places that reflect 21st century medicine." "The IFP advocates a radical change in the structure of South Africa's health system. Hospitals are in a shambles because nurse and doctor morale is low. Morale is low because theft is rampant and accountability non existent. Policy should be decentralised to promote local initiatives and efficiency. The gap between the excellent private health system and the poor public service should be bridged through competitive contracts between public and private sectors running clinics, medicine delivery and hospitals. Government should concern itself less with self sufficiency and open its doors to every donor agency willing to help." "The Minister busies herself interfering with financial affairs of the private sector while neglecting the public sector, her main responsibility. The latest move to offer dual therapy at selected hospitals adds an additional burden to an overstressed system whereas a program offering a 6 week course of nevirapine to infants from day 6 to 42 has been shown by the National Institute for human health and child development in the US to be as effective as dual therapy and is less expensive and difficult to monitor." "Solidarity with the sick and dying would engender policies that produce change, not words and charters that achieve nothing."
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