Pretoria – The North West has introduced 17 school health vehicles to improve the roll out of the Integrated School Health Programme (ISHP), in order to reach more learners.
The ISHP, which targets grade 0 to 12 learners, will see professional nurses visiting various schools across the province using the vehicles to monitor and improve the general health of school-going children.
Unveiling the vehicles on Wednesday, North West Health MEC Magome Masike said they would focus primarily on identifying health barriers to learning, as well as identifying children who have or are at risk for long term health issues.
“ISHP aims to individually assess every learner once during each of the four educational phases. Also in the foundation phase, services will cover environmental and personal hygiene, especially the importance of hand-washing, healthy eating, the promotion of physical exercise and safety.
“As part of the programme, health professionals will also screen the ears, eyes, immunisation status and nutritional status of children. In the intermediate phase, attention will be paid to mental health issues, including depression and suicide, as well as issues related to substance abuse,” MEC Masike said.
Bojanala District has been allocated six vehicles, while Ngaka Modiri Molema and Ruth Segomotsi Mompati districts each received five vehicles. One vehicle was made available to Dr Kenneth Kaunda District. This is in addition to three school health mobile vehicles made available to the district during the launch of ISHP last year.
MEC Masike also unveiled 10 obstetric ambulances today to exclusively transport pregnant women. These ambulances will help improve access to skilled birth attendants, reduce ambulance turn-around time and reduce maternal and child mortality due to lack of or transport delay.
The North West Chapter of Saving Mothers Report 2008 – 2010 singled out the transportation of pregnant women as a major challenge relating to maternal death. Twenty-two mothers died due to lack of transport.
However, despite the challenge highlighted, the department has made some progress, which has seen maternal mortality go down from 229 per 100 000 live births in 2008, to 145/100 000 live births in 2011.
“The province had also seen a decrease in the Infant Mortality Rate from 40 deaths per 1 000 live births in 2009, to 30 deaths per 1 000 live births in the same reporting period,” said MEC Masike. – SAnews.gov.za
