Rustenburg - North West MEC for Health and Social Development Rebecca Kasienyane has urged private health practitioners to support the department in its effort to improve and sustain the health and social conditions of people.
Addressing the private health practitioners on Wednesday, Ms Kasienyane said her vision for the department was to improve and sustain the health and social conditions of people.
"This is an aspiration that I will not be able to fulfill on my own, I need the support of all concerned and affected stakeholders.
"As doctors you are not only concerned stakeholders, but you are also bound by your "call" for duty and your pledge to care for the health of our people and as the department.
"It is our responsibility to also assist you to carry this burden of a "calling" that lays heavily on your shoulders and your conscious," Ms Kasienyane told the practitioners.
She met with the private doctors with an aim to discuss better ways of working together with the private health practitioners in order achieve the same objective of improving the health status of people.
"I came here to specifically meet and discuss better ways of working together to improve the health of our communities, you are indeed one of the most important stakeholders and as an important partner, your opinions on how best we can improve the health status of our communities is essential in shaping and informing government's policy on health service delivery," she sad.
The MEC urged the private practitioners to plough back to the rural communities, saying that all too often rural communities suffered because they had to wait for before a doctor would visit the area or travel a long distance to their nearest clinic.
"I'm hoping that in the long term, we can create a cordial working relationship with you as private medical practitioners in which you will find ways to assist the rural communities.
"We are doing a lot as government to import skill from other countries and have also been successful in our Cuban Medical Programme in which we have produced a significant number of doctors since its inception, we want to do more especially for our rural health care," said Ms Kasienyane.
