Speech by Mr M W Sibuyana MP
 

National Assembly, 07 June 2007  

Chairperson,

First of all, the IFP would like to welcome the Minister back to duty and we hope she will inject fresh blood into her portfolio.

The very poor state of public health services is no longer just the concern of opposition parties. It has also been highlighted by the Human Rights Commission which has found the same shortcomings that we have been complaining about for the last five years. The Commission's hearings indicate that the conditions in the public health service are getting worse by the day.

Doctors complain of poor working conditions and nurses complain of poor morale and overloading. Intimidation and theft are alleged. Hospital administrators complain of hospitals that badly need maintenance and of a lack of trained staff. Patients complain about incompetence, lack of compassion, shortages of drugs at clinics and being discharged from hospitals to die at home.

All of this does not take into account the thousands of patients per week who are left to die at home from AIDS or a combination of AIDS and TB.

Adding to the list of problems I mentioned is the terrible state of TB in South Africa. In South Africa, the issue of forced detention for persons diagnosed with XDRTB is still a matter of debate to balance the rights of the patient and the public. This is a smoke screen for incompetence in handling the deadly epidemic.

Many meetings have been held to discuss strategy. They call for better data collection, more training of staff, better management of ordinary TB and improved testing measures. But this amounts to a wish list. None of these can come about in a health system that is in such a poor state.

Hon Minster you have to take the suffering to heart and drastically change health strategies as people can stomach these failings no longer.

We must have accountability. That means decentralisation. It means clarity of roles in the public service between national, provincial and local level, so that everyone knows who is responsible for what.

It means working with all the international partners we can find, and not closing down clinics partnered by donors because government loses interest in supporting them.

Home based care is the answer to TB or mobile units run through competitive public private partnerships that go to best bidders and not to best buddies. The same applies to all health services.

The VCT for HIV is the song of the politically correct. It must be replaced by mass pre-test counselling and routine testing. The IFP is considering a private members bill to make premarital testing for HIV obligatory.

We are also considering a bill to ban transfats as that is a cause of major health problems that afflict those who do not suffer from TB and AIDS.

There are other major shortcomings in public health services. The finances of the MCC are a mystery; the regulation of medical devices is still not in place; the regulation of traditional healers remains a myth; and the regulation of medicines sold in the complementary medicine industry is non-existent.

The regulation of conventional medicine has turned the health department into a financial services board for which they do not have expertise and loaded them with additional bureaucracy.

There should be transparency along the entire chain of medicine supplies and maximum exit prices with bulk discounts to all, on the same basis. All regulation on the basis of NEED is unfair and impractical. They are stifling competition and entrepreneurship.

In closing, I want to congratulate the ANC members on their oversight of health matters and particularly our chairperson Mr James Mnchunu who is a fair and exemplary chair.

I also call on the Minster to review the IFP's suggestions over the years and by implementing them to help her overcome the health crises in our country.

The Health budget is not the problem and we therefore support it. The way the budget is used is the major problem.