Progress made in eradicating backlogs in health facilities

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Pretoria - Cabinet says the country has made progress in eradicating backlogs in health facilities.

Speaking on behalf of Cabinet on Thursday, Minister in the Presidency responsible for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Jeff Radebe, said this includes progress in the maintenance of about 70 clinics and Community Health Centres.

Minister Radebe briefed the media in Pretoria following a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday in Cape Town.

He said maintenance has also been done to at least 18 hospitals and 67 health facilities in districts where the National Health Insurance is being piloted.

“The construction of three Primary Health Care Centres and three Community Care Centres was completed, and the construction of four Community Health Care Centres is in progress,” said the Minister.

Health services

Minister Radebe said prevention is the cornerstone of the public sector’s efforts to combat HIV and AIDS.

“As part of HIV Counselling and Testing services, a total of 3 022 988 clients were tested for HIV, against the third quarter target of 2 500 000.”

He also said a total of 221 201 467 male condoms and 6 403 730 female condoms were distributed against the third quarter targets of 150 000 000 and 4 500 000, respectively. He said about 155 188 medical male circumcisions were performed against the quarterly target of 250 000.

The Minister said the tuberculosis (TB) new client treatment success rate was 84.2% exceeding the third quarter target of 84%.

“In the third quarter, about 66.3% of pregnant women visited health facilities before 20 weeks, exceeding the quarter target of 63.” - SAnews.gov.za