E T H EKW I NI • C O MMU NI T Y HEA LT H & WELL- B EI NG
Bringing health to eThekwini’s residents Striving to ensure the health and well-being of eThekwini’s residents is key to fostering an engaged and productive citizenry, who are looked after with compassion and capable of driving economic growth.
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he modern delivery of health services is overwhelmingly based on a medical or curative model of care. While this model does improve prognosis and prolongs survival it is not economically sustainable in the long term. What is required for the future is a combination of both the curative model together with community-based disease-preventing strategies and healthpromoting activities. This model places greater emphasis on recognising the social determinants of ill-health and will allow for critical prevention strategies to improve the overall health of citizens. Challenges The City aims to provide services of high quality towards achieving the National Core Standards through the Ideal Clinic Status, yet faces numerous challenges in this regard. This is due to various factors that include subprofessional-standard practices, insufficient supervision, a lack of implementing tools, a shortage of staff and inadequate infrastructure. To rectify this situation, the next steps entail addressing the challenges of infection control, risk management, improving the adherence to policies and processes, better management of pharmaceuticals, improving infrastructure, data management, and ensuring the adequate management of patient records. It is no secret that HIV/Aids and TB are major health challenges faced across South Africa. The high rates of infection of these communicable diseases contribute sharply to reduced
City empowers traditional healers to improve safety The City’s Health Unit equipped traditional health practitioners on the management of diseases. This aimed to improve the safety of the sector’s approach to treating illnesses. This training is in line with the Traditional Health Practitioners Act (No. 22 of 2007) whose focus is on the professionalisation of the practice. Earlier this year, the City held a Traditional Health Practitioners’ Seminar at the Ntuzuma F Community Hall. The seminar recognised the role played by traditional health practitioners while also allowing for the City to receive feedback on its initiatives to empower the sector. Councillor Ntokozo Sibiya, chairperson: Community Services Committee, said the City recognises the important role of traditional healers in society. She said it was therefore important to strengthen support to improve safety and compliance of legislation within the sector. “We understand that some people prefer to consult with traditional healers. Therefore, government must continue to work with the traditional sector to ensure healers are equipped with the latest information to manage diseases and protect themselves from being infected,” said Sibiya. The City’s Health Unit also visits practices to assess the state of hygiene and hosts workshops to educate traditional healers about the storage and measurement of medicine dosages. Neziswa Ndaka, deputy secretary of the Provincial AIDS Forum and a traditional healer, recognised the strides made in the professionalisation of the traditional healer sector. “We appreciate the progress that has been made. This includes being able to refer patients who are ill to hospitals. We are following guidelines to also protect ourselves from being infected when treating patients, and are open to working and learning from government and other sectors,” said Ndaka.
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